City & State New York 052019

JERROLD NADLER

theTHORN inTRUMP’S

SIDE

DE BLASIO 2020 What he left out of his campaign video

SESSION COUNTDOWN CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

Albany’s end-of-session to-do list May 20, 2019

Because we need more…

EnginEErs TEachErs EnvironmEnTal sciEnTisTs acTivisTs invEnTors nursEs arTisTs DaTa analysTs DocTors PoETs we must Lift the cap on charter schooLs.

May 20, 2019

City & State New York

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EDITOR’S NOTE

JON LENTZ Editor-in-chief

IN JUST UNDER A MONTH, the 2019 state legislative session is scheduled to come to a close. While that technically leaves five weeks to wrap things up in Albany, there are just 16 days in which the state Legislature will actually be in session. With a number of headline-grabbing measures on the table, along with a much longer list of lesser-known legislative priorities that lawmakers are scrambling to pass, there’s a lot to get done and not much time to do it all.

Of course, all the last-minute horse-trading and lobbying is likely to result in at least some of the measures getting sent to the governor for his signature. It’s anyone’s guess as to which ones will succeed, but City & State’s insider audience thinks that several bills – the expansion of prevailing wages, the legalization of recreational marijuana and raising the charter school cap – are becoming less likely to advance. In a pair of online reader polls at cityandstateny.com, the share of readers predicting that each of those bills will pass decreased from April to May. Other bills, such as single-payer health care, are all but guaranteed to be on hold until next year.

This week, we take a closer look at all of these proposals – and more – in our annual Session Countdown.

CONTENTS

BILL DE BLASIO … 6 Fact-checking the mayor’s presidential announcement

JERROLD NADLER … 8 A Q&A with the congressman targeting Trump SESSION COUNTDOWN … 15 The major items left on Albany’s to-do list

WINNERS & LOSERS … 38

CELESTE SLOMAN

Who was up and who was down last week

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The

May 20, 2019

Latest WILLIAMS PIPELINE GOES DOWN THE DRAIN

PANTALEO ON TRIAL DE BLAZ FOR PREZ

The disciplinary trial of NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is accused of using an illegal chokehold during a deadly confrontation with Eric Garner five years ago, has finally begun. A grand jury already decided not to indict Pantaleo for Garner’s death, but he still faces possible police disciplinary action.

The prosecution rested after three days of testimony.

After months of speculation, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio officially announced his presidential bid, making him the 23rd Democrat vying to challenge President Donald Trump. Following the release of a short campaign video, de Blasio broke the news during a brief appearance on “Good Morning America” with Chirlane McCray. After making the announcement, de Blasio jetted off to South Carolina and Iowa to make his pitch to the rest of the country.

The

Back & Forth

A Q&A with with former Gov.

David Paterson The

Kicker

How do you think Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Democrats in Albany are dealing with the new balance in the state Legislature?

Democrats controlled both houses in 2009 and 2010, and that didn’t work out very well for them. And Republicans controlled both houses in the United States Congress between 2016 and 2018, and that didn’t work out very well for them. So there’s got to be an understanding that even though you have a majority, you’ve got to find a way to be reaching out to the entire population.

Unfortunately, when one party emerges as the winner and has both houses, they can tend to be a little too extreme. I think what they’ve got to work on are some major pieces of legislation that never got passed because they didn’t have the votes in those days, but also a decorum that still represents the whole state.

“I can’t refer to a terminal as a sexy terminal.”

– Gov. ANDREW CUOMO, at a ribbon-cutting for the TWA terminal, which is set to become a luxury hotel, at JFK Airport, via Splinter Get the kicker every morning in CITY & STATE’S FIRST READ email. Sign up at cityandstateny.com.

Why do you think we’re seeing a rift within the Democratic Party between progressive insurgents and the party’s old guard?

It’s politics. Even when you have total control, it may be uniformity, but it’s not necessarily unity.

People still have individual interests. They had an Independent Democratic Conference when they thought that was the cool thing to do.

They were suspicious of what the leaders were doing. But after a while, they were getting to the point where they were shown more favor (by Republicans) than the Democratic minority.

So we went out and hired this great consultant who helped organize the 2018 campaign. His name is Donald Trump. Just the mention of his name, and people got wiped out. And now we have a different system. What I’m hoping is that in the new system, they don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. Just because you’re in power, doesn’t mean you have to wield it with an iron hand.

MICHAEL APPLETON/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE; VISMAR UK, CHRISTOPHER PENLER, DERRICK SALTERS, LEV RADIN, TRAVELVIEW/SHUTTERSTOCK

The state Department of Environmental Conservation rejected a contentious new pipeline that would have connected natural gas fields in Pennsylvania to downstate New York. Energy companies warned that they might impose a gas moratorium on Long Island and New York City without the new pipeline, while environmental advocates argued against building new natural gas infrastructure.

May 20, 2019

City & State New York

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ON THE ROADAGAIN DE BLASIO HEADS FOR THE HILLS WHILE CUOMO STAYS HOME. IN DECEMBER, The New York Times referred to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as the “vanishing mayor” because of the mayor’s plummeting City Hall attendance record. De Blasio has frequently traveled out of state during the past five years to visit family in Connecticut, take overseas vacations, and to fulfill his desire to be seen as

a national progressive leader and a viable 2020 presidential candidate.

From 2014 to 2018, the mayor traveled out of state an average of 41 days per year, which included an average of 18 days for vacation each year, according to his public schedule.

By contrast, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been

BY ERICA SCALISE

much more of a homebody. Now in his ninth year of office, Cuomo has been out of the state for a total of just 33 days, according to his public daily schedule.

His rare out-of-state trips often consist of singular days in Washington, D.C., for conferences and meetings, or for short overseas trips.

2014 DE BLASIO

33 DAYS OUT OF STATE

CUOMO

3 DAYS OUT OF STATE

2015 DE BLASIO CUOMO

45 DAYS 5 DAYS

TRADE MISSION TO CUBA

KEVIN P. COUGHLIN/OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR; SEAN PAVONE/SHUTTERSTOCK

2016 DE BLASIO

49 DAYS

CUOMO

7 DAYS

2017 DE BLASIO

39 DAYS

CUOMO

6 DAYS

2018 DE BLASIO

40 DAYS

CUOMO

3 DAYS

IN SOUTH WEEKEND CAROLINA

2019* DE BLASIO

18 DAYS

CUOMO

5 DAYS * 2019 data current as of May 15

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May 20, 2019

PRESI ANNOUNCEM BILL DE BLASIO’S

B

ILL DE BLASIO is running for president. After months spent deciding whether he’d run, the New York City mayor officially jumped into the Democratic primary with a three-minute, seven-second video posted on his YouTube channel early Thursday morning. We took a closer look at the announcement from the 23rd Democratic presidential candidate to enter the race.

Pedestrian and bicycle advocates have long criticized de Blasio for his “windshield perspective” that favors drivers over those who commute in other ways.

De Blasio debuted this slogan at his January State of the City address.

He's been using it a lot since then, in both government and political contexts.

“There’s plenty of money in this world.

There’s plenty of money in this country! It’s just in the wrong hands.”

De Blasio has never been shy about income redistribution. He ran for office on a platform of taxing high earners to fund universal prekindergarten. For years, he pushed for a millionaires tax to fund the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He endorsed a pied-à-terre tax in 2019. None of the three have gone into effect.

“Good thing about New Yorkers is they look the same, whether they’re really pissed off at you or they like you.”

This line, delivered as if it were unscripted, humanizes de Blasio, and has him using slightly off-color language – but could also be seen as defense against the bad press and polls he’s gotten. New York is tough!

May 20, 2019

City & State New York

IDENTIAL VIDEO, MENT ANNOTATED

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by J E F F C O L T I N

The health care program was announced in January, and will not begin until August. This May presser could have been a way for the mayor to get good footage for a campaign video.

De Blasio would know, having traveled out of state an average of 41 days a year. After his announcement, de Blasio went to Iowa and South Carolina.

“It doesn’t matter if you live in a city or a rural area, a big state, a small state.

It doesn’t matter what your ethnicity is. People in every part of this country feel stuck – or even like they’re going backwards. But the rich got richer.”

“This has never existed anywhere else in this country: fully comprehensive, guaranteed health care.”

San Francisco would beg to differ, and de Blasio should know because Mitchell Katz, his New York City Health + Hospitals CEO, launched the program in that city.

De Blasio said recently he’s been calling Trump “Con Don.”

“I’m a New Yorker. I’ve known Trump’s a bully for a long time. This is not news to me or anyone else here. And I know how to take him on.”

And how to partner with him, in some cases, like expanding the list of crimes for which the city would turn over immigrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

De Blasio’s salary and rental income both increased from 2017 to 2018.

“I’m Bill de Blasio, and I’m running for president because it’s time we put working people first.”

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May 20, 2019

THE

INVESTIGATO

Why House Judiciary Chairman Je rro l d Nad l e r won’t stop pursuing Donald Trump.

portraits by C E L E S T E S L O M A N

May 20, 2019

OR

City & State New York

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THE DAY BEFORE special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election was released, Rep. Jerrold Nadler was already convinced that it was inadequate, that the only choice he had as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee was to pick up the investigation where Mueller left off.

Nadler was unruffled by critics on the right and far left who emphasized that Mueller’s team of 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, intelligence analysts and forensic

May 20, 2019

accountants had spent nearly two years and more than $25 million investigating President Donald Trump and his aides and advisers, while coming up short on the central question of conspiracy.

Mueller did charge 34 people and three companies – including more than a dozen Russians who allegedly sought to influence the election and top Trump aides like former campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted of unrelated crimes – but the investigation concluded without a single indictment of an American for conspiring with Russia.

Yet Nadler had already signaled that Mueller’s report would not be the last word, sending letters and document requests to 81 individuals and other entities in pursuit of evidence of “obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power” by Trump and his associates.

When the special counsel report was delivered to U.S. Attorney General William Barr in March, no new indictments were announced. When City & State spoke with Nadler, Barr had issued his four-page summary that said that Mueller did not determine whether anyone had obstructed justice.

Barr had also made the highly controversial claim that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge anyone with the crime.

But Nadler remained certain that there were additional crimes, that the evidence clearly showed collusion, that the president may have obstructed justice or committed other impeachable offenses – and the Manhattan congressman said he would not rest until he got to the bottom of it.

“Remember, the special prosecutor is

looking at crimes,” Nadler told City & State in an extended interview in his Manhattan district office on April 17, hours before he and the rest of the American public had a chance to read a redacted version of the full Mueller report for the first time. “Crimes demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt, so if Mueller says we’re not charging him, what he’s saying is: We don’t have evidence in our opinion beyond a reasonable doubt. Period. We’re looking to see what happened. Who did what. I’m not saying the president should be impeached, that’s a different question, but there are grounds for impeachment which are not crimes.”

While the president and Republican lawmakers have assailed Nadler for continuing his “witch hunt,” Mueller did leave the door open for further action.

“While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Mueller wrote.

“We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.”

Now, as Nadler charges ahead and leads congressional Democrats into a high-stakes confrontation with the White House over access to Mueller’s unredacted report and all the underlying evidence, as well as attempts to compel testimony and obtain documents directly from key witnesses, questions remain: What could Nadler hope to uncover that Mueller did not?

And what impact will his actions have in 2020, when many Democrats are intent on knocking Trump out of office at the polls?

In his interview with City & State last month, the House Judiciary Committee chairman laid out a detailed legal case for his ongoing investigation, including why he thinks Donald Trump Jr. committed a crime. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You have asserted that President Donald Trump obstructed justice, but Robert Mueller concluded that there was insufficient evidence of conspiracy between his campaign – What the special prosecutor is looking at, remember he’s a prosecutor, he’s looking at crimes, crimes demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt, so if he says we’re not charging him, what he’s saying is we don’t have evidence in our opinion beyond a reasonable doubt. Period. That’s what he’s saying.

After Mueller spent 22 months and

J SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

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more than $25 million investigating, why aren’t his conclusions convincing?

In most things in life when we say, did someone do this or not, we don’t demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s a very high standard. And that’s all a prosecutor talks about, does he think that he has evidence sufficient to establish the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. He may very well have strong evidence that it happened but not that strong. So that’s not saying it didn’t happen, that’s not saying the person isn’t guilty, it’s saying there’s not enough evidence to charge the person under that standard.

Based on the document requests you sent to 81 individuals and entities, it looks like you’re going over a lot of the same ground as Mueller did. So what are you looking for, if not crimes?

We’re looking to see what happened. Who did what. Talk about impeachment, for example. I’m not saying the president should be impeached, that’s a different question,

City & State New York

but if you were looking at that, there are grounds for impeachment which are not crimes. Equally, there are crimes which are not grounds for impeachment.

Can you give an example of something that is an impeachable offense that isn’t a crime?

Sure, let me think a minute.

Something related to President Donald Trump, something conceivably he could have done.

OK, the president agreeing, or the president knowing that subordinates in his campaign are working with the Russians to get help for the campaign and not objecting, letting them do it. Maybe he didn’t instruct them, maybe you can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt – well forget the reasonable doubt, he didn’t commit a crime. He didn’t positively do it, on the other hand, he let something completely subversive of a national election occur.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the House Judiciary chairman, has not ruled out pursuing impeachment against the president.

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Like possibly the Trump Tower meeting, where his subordinates – Well, OK, let’s assume that he knew about the Trump Tower meeting. Let’s assume that he knew of other actions. Let’s assume that he didn’t instruct anyone to do anything, he just let all of his subordinates do these things. I would say that’s impeachable. I mean, depending on what they did obviously. But it’s not necessarily a crime – he didn’t tell them to do it.

What’s the difference between Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee funding the Steele dossier?

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Why? There’s nothing wrong with funding opposition research. There’s something wrong with a foreign government funding opposition research. There are laws that say you cannot, a campaign cannot, accept

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help from a non-American.

Christopher Steele is not an American.

But he was paid.

He also went to Russia to get information.

That’s perfectly fine. Let’s assume for the moment that an American went to try to get information from Russia to benefit Hillary’s campaign – there’d be nothing wrong with that. Unless he paid off the Russians, which is a separate question. He could do that as a volunteer. He could do that for pay. If he’s not an American, however, he can’t do that because a non-American may not contribute to a political campaign. Now a non-American, therefore, could not go to Russia, get information and give it to the Hillary campaign unless he was paid. If he was paid to do it, he’s an employee. He’s allowed to do that. It’s not a contribution. So, Steele – if he is hired by the Hillary campaign, or by someone on behalf of the Hillary campaign, it’s perfectly OK to try and get information and give it to the Hillary campaign.

How is this different than Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya?

There’s two things wrong with it. No. 1, the people he’s meeting with are not Americans.

Therefore, they’re not permitted to give anything of value to the campaign, unless they’re paid for it, fair market value.

They can’t make a contribution. It’s against our laws for a foreigner to make a campaign contribution. Campaign contributions can be a check, here’s a thousand dollars. Or it can anything of value. Here’s information on Hillary.

That’s something of value to the campaign. Therefore it’s a contribution. I am giving you something of use to the campaign. If I’m giving you a chocolate cake, and it’s not of use to the campaign, it’s not a campaign contribu-

May 20, 2019

tion. If I’m giving you something of use to the campaign, with the intention of helping the campaign, that’s a contribution. It’s what’s called an inkind contribution – it’s not cash – it’s an in-kind contribution. It’s perfectly OK to give an in-kind contribution, if you’re an American and if the value of that is under the campaign contribution limits. But if you’re not an American, you’re not allowed to give a campaign contribution, nor is the campaign permitted to take it.

Wouldn’t a prosecutor with the stature of Robert Mueller, after Donald Trump Jr. testified for hours, why would he not – I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t understand why. And one of things we want to see in this report is the reasoning. Donald Trump Jr., from what we know publicly, without any private knowledge, is the recipient of an email that says, “We want to meet with you, to give you dirt on Hillary as part of the Russian government’s campaign to help Donald Trump’s election. That’s what it said in the invitation. They take the meeting. What that invitation is saying is we want to give you something of value to the campaign, which makes it illegal, since we’re foreigners.

Having that invitation to a meeting for the purpose of getting an illegal contribution, Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner and the campaign manager, Paul Manafort, go to the meeting. Trump Jr. says at the meeting, after it’s described to him, “If it’s what you say it is, wonderful!” If I were a prosecutor, I think I’d prosecute just on that. Not Trump, but the people who went to the meeting.

(Editor’s note: Mueller found that he could not apply campaign finance law to an illegal gift from a foreigner because the information offered was of so little value – less than the $2,000 threshold required to charge the Trump associates with a misdemeanor, let alone the $25,000 threshold for a felony punishment. Nadler’s office noted last week that the House Judiciary Committee is in discussions with Mueller to testify and expects him to appear before the committee in the near future.)

Because they went to the meeting, this is an impeachable offense?

No, it is not an impeachable offense.

I’m saying, I think that they committed a crime, because the crime is conspiracy. Conspiracy is defined as two or more people agreeing to do something, illegal or improper and

City & State New York

taking one overt act. So, if you and I agree to rob the bank, and joke about it, and never talk about it again, that’s not a conspiracy. But if you and I agree to rob the bank and you rent the getaway car, we’re both guilty of conspiracy. You follow me? An overt act. I think that going to the meeting was the overt act.

Now, it may very well be that you can’t prove that Donald Trump knew about that meeting, or knew about what was agreed to at that meeting, in which case, he hasn’t committed a crime. But Donald Jr., I think, has. And Manafort has, and Jared, whoev-

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foreigner, which can’t make any campaign contribution. So if Hillary’s campaign hires Fusion GPS, which hires Christopher Steele, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Campaigns hire research firms all the time to get research about whatever opposition research it’s recognizing in the campaign.

Nothing wrong with that. Period.

Do you challenge the legitimacy of the 2016 election results?

No. No. The results are what they were.

And there’s no provision for challenging the legitimacy of the election results. By the way, let’s assume – and maybe this is a problem in the Constitution – let’s assume the Electoral College voted for Trump – he needed 270 votes – let’s assume there were 273 votes – I mean there were more, but let’s assume there were 273 votes.

Let’s assume, and therefore he was declared elected, he’s inaugurated and so forth.

Let’s assume that 10 of them were bribed. They were paid $50,000 a piece to cast their votes for Trump. There’s no provision to undo anything.

They can go to jail, but the election is the election – it’s over. You can challenge the moral legitimacy, maybe, but you can’t challenge the legal legitimacy of the election.

YOU DON’T LET A FOREIGN GOVERNMENT INTERFERE IN THE CAMPAIGN. er went to that meeting. Especially whoever went to that meeting and said – and I think it was Donald Jr. – “If it’s what you say it is, I love it.” That shows he knew exactly what he was doing. That’s more evidence of guilt. I don’t understand why they’re not indicting some of the people who went to that meeting. Why you’re not indicting Trump is maybe you can’t prove he knew about it, or agreed to it, wasn’t at the meeting, who knows? But that’s why Adam Schiff is saying and I’ve said there was collusion in plain sight. That’s collusion!

So had Donald Trump Jr. paid this person, it would’ve been fine?

If he paid fair market value, it wouldn’t be fine, morally, but it wouldn’t be a violation of the law. Now forget the crime for a moment, in terms of patriotism and morality.

You don’t let a foreign government or people who are working in a foreign government interfere in the campaign. The only proper response, the only proper response, to an invitation from the Russians to help you in the campaign is to report it to the FBI. Period. It’s the only patriotic response.

Now, I can hire for a campaign someone to do a job so long as I pay fair market value. It’s not a campaign contribution. He can make a campaign contribution as long as it’s not more than $2,700, unless he’s a

Is there anything wrong with the fact that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application, which served as a basis for the FBI’s investigation into Russian meddling in U.S. elections, was based partially on this Steele dossier – No! Nothing wrong with that, either. … The Steele dossier was a collection of documents.

All of it, almost all of it admittedly, was unvetted, not proven. Everything we know so far that’s been tested has proven accurate.

Lots of things haven’t been tested yet. Nothing in that memo has been proven to be false.

Nothing?

Almost nothing, maybe nothing. I’m not sure. Most, or all, of what’s been verified, one way or the other, has been verified as accurate. But that’s not the point. It may have been 90% accurate and 10% inaccurate. They may know that it was totally accurate and said this was raw, unfiltered intelligence data.

Can you be specific as to what was verified?

You’d have to look, it’s been all in the public.

Lots of things have been verified, but that’s

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not even the point. When you apply for FISA Court applications, this is intelligence work.

You’re not dealing with facts proven beyond a reasonable doubt because you’d never get a warrant. You’re dealing with indications, with rumors, with testimony that isn’t verified, sufficient to cause a FISA Court to allow you to get through, to issue the warrant. It’s what is it. It’s not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s probable cause, which is a very low standard. In the FISA application, the Steele dossier, or part of it, was one of the things.

It wasn’t the major thing. It was one document cited in a large thing, and the FBI, in there, the Justice Department, whoever did the application, in their applications specifically said, to the court, this is raw intelligence. They described how they obtained it.

We cannot verify its accuracy. That’s what you tell the court. The court chose given that and given all the other information in the application, there’s enough there to grant the FISA application.

Have you seen that application?

Yes. I have.

OK. So you’re saying that the Steele dossier was just a very small thing.

I don’t know about very small, it was a small part, relatively small. But the point is the court was told this is unverified information. This is how it was gotten. You evaluate it. Once you’ve done that, that’s what you’re supposed to do. The court granted the application. A FISA is only good for, I think it’s 90 days. To renew the FISA application, you have to show not only whatever you show it to get in the first place, but you have to show that it’s productive. That, in fact, your warrant – granted pursuant to the FISA application – has gotten information of value to counterintelligence. They were working with the Russians, or somebody who’s talking about something, and therefore renew it. It was renewed three times.

That means it was productive. That means somebody was dealing with Russians, or with somebody. And the third time it was renewed, by the way, the guy who signed the application was Rod Rosenstein, who had been appointed at that point. So there’s nothing wrong with that application, and anybody who says there was something wrong with it though – it’s spying, etc. – is trafficking in total bullshit.

You impeach people for high crimes and misdemeanors. What does that mean?

The best summary, when the impeachment, the whole thing came up 20 years ago, my first thing was to read everything I could starting with the English and the 1600s of what’s impeachable. The best summary, by the way, I still think, is the majority staff report at the Judiciary Committee written in February of ’74 by Hil-

May 20, 2019

lary Rodham, of all people. I still think that’s the best summary of the law. Impeachment is a defense of the Constitution, the defense of liberty and defense against the president who would arrogate power to himself, who would do things to destroy the separation of powers, who would do things to destroy liberty. It’s a political defense against the political crime. So, when it was proven that Richard Nixon cheated and lied about his income taxes, that was voted down as an article of impeachment because you don’t have to be president to lie and cheat on your income taxes. And that’s

because there’s a specific reference to that in the Federalist Papers.

But related to this lengthy investigation into the Russians and Trump – That’s very fast and very cheap for this kind of investigation. Take a look at how much Ken Starr spent, and how long that took. It was like seven years and I don’t know how much money.

Where is the sign that even whatever Trump and Putin talked about – let’s say they had a secret meeting and talked about blowing up the world together – Well, all that does is raise questions. Why is Jared Kushner trying to set up a secret back channel from the White House to the Kremlin on Russian equipment so no one else knows? No American knows what’s going on, before the inauguration. Michael Flynn was doing this same thing, (and it) raises a lot of questions. Unprecedented, it raises a lot of questions in the same context of the guy who’s publicly giving every excuse to Russia. I remember, he was the guy who, when you’re talking about lethal military weapons to Ukraine, changed the Republican platform.

Was there counter pressure a year or two later? Sure. Has he done everything Putin wanted? No, but he’s done a lot. It’s hard to imagine someone serving Russian interests better, in terms of sabotaging NATO, sabotaging our relations with all our European allies. So through the entire campaign, he’s lying to the public by saying, I have no deals with Russia, no dealings with Russia, when he’s negotiating Trump Tower (Moscow).

And by the way, that means two things. It means No. 1, he’s got a real, personal interest that he’s not revealing to the public, which the public should have know in an election.

And No. 2, it means Putin has a hold over him because Putin knows something, which if he revealed it would be highly embarrassing to Trump. It might cost him the election.

What does he know? That he’s negotiating with the Russians to build the Trump Tower (Moscow) when he’s saying he’s not? That’s compromising information that Putin has (that) nobody else had.

THERE WAS COLLUSION IN PLAIN SIGHT. THAT’S COLLUSION! not, that’s a crime, you should be prosecuted for it, and had it not been for the pardon, he probably would have been prosecuted for it, but it has nothing to do with threatening the structure of government. By the same token, Bill Clinton committed perjury about a sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. That was not impeachable because it’s perjury about a private sexual affair. It had nothing to do with arrogating powers, threatening liberty or affecting the structure of functioning government.

He was impeached for obstructing justice.

He was impeached for various things but his impeachment was wrong. I would say what he was impeached for, which is basically perjury about a private sexual affair, is not an impeachable offense. Now, say if Donald Trump committed perjury, for example, let’s assume that he was subpoenaed by the attorney general of New York and looking into a misuse of his charitable foundation and maybe stealing money through his charitable foundation, and he committed perjury in that investigation, that would not be impeachable because it’s not relevant to misuse of his presidency. To be impeachable, it has to be what I just said. Oh, there’s one other thing, it’s got to be while you’re president. The only thing it can be if you’re not president would be if you’re trying to rig the election to start with. And we know that

Is pursuing this a good strategy going into 2020 for the Democrats?

No. But I think it’s a duty. Let me put it this way, the election is one thing, and it’s supremely important, and for the election we have to be talking about health care and all the other issues, but we also have to vindicate the rule of law.

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SESSION COUNTDOWN

2019 I

N THE EARLY WEEKS of the state legislative session, newly empowered Democrats passed one progressive bill after another: election reforms, protections for transgender New Yorkers, codifying Roe v. Wade in state law, the Child Victims Act, the state DREAM Act, gun control, a statewide plastic bag ban and on and on.

But as the easier bills advanced, other policy proposals have proven to be more intractable. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are trying to legalize recreational marijuana, but they still haven’t gotten on

the same page. The governor called for raising the cap on charter schools in New York City, but many of his fellow Democrats aren’t interested.

Other issues – creating a single-payer health care system, scrapping the admission test for New York City’s elite high schools, legalizing mobile sports gambling – may face even longer odds this session.

In this year’s session countdown, we identify the biggest bills that are still up for debate – and assess how likely they are to pass in the final weeks of the session.

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May 20, 2019

SESSION COUNTDOWN

EDUCATION

CUOMO’S

CHARTER SCHOOL

DILEMMA Will the governor raise the cap on charter schools in NYC?

by Z A C H W I L L I A M S

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EMOCRATIC STATE lawmakers want to act on a number of issues in the remaining weeks of this year’s legislative session, but allowing more charter schools to open in New York City is not on their agenda.

The current cap on charter schools permits 460 to open statewide, but there are no remaining slots reserved for New York City. Though 99 more charters could still open statewide, charter school supporters

are pushing to raise the cap this year to continue the industry’s growth downstate.

And although the movement’s long-standing allies in the state Senate Republican conference are out of power, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently revived the issue. “We support raising this artificial cap,” Rich Azzopardi, the governor’s spokesman, told the New York Post in mid-April. “But the Legislature needs to agree as well.”

Despite Cuomo’s support, charter school proponents

face resistance from teachers unions and many Democratic lawmakers who want to leave the cap unchanged. The issue is “not even on the radar screen,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said recently, according to North Country Public Radio.

State senators have also been cool to the idea, and no Democratic lawmaker has proposed legislation on the cap in recent weeks. The general mood among Democrats is that charter schools divert

critical resources from traditional public schools. “That is where my allegiance lies,” said state Sen. Shelley Mayer, who chairs the Education Committee. “I never have been a fan of raising the cap.”

The cap will test Cuomo’s commitment to charter schools at a time when Democrats control both houses of the Legislature and show little desire to help the charter school industry grow. Teachers unions remain opposed, and while some Democratic lawmakers are sup-

We Need More Charter Schools

By James Merriman

Why does New York City need more charter schools?

We need more charter schools because this country needs more scientists, teachers, and authors – it needs world changers. We need more engineers who can build us into the next century and empowered judges to protect our civil liberties. New York City needs more charter schools because we need the next generation to be able to tackle the monumental problems facing this planet.

We need more charter schools because we are living in a new world. We are

living in a time when we can’t rely on the same choices, models, and institutions as the previous generation. We know things in this country need to be better, so yesterday’s answers aren’t sufficient anymore. Charters shouldn’t be asked to replicate district practices and norms, nor should they be limited to just being “labs of innovation.” Families of color are choosing charter schools - such that one in five Black students are in charter schools. This is an educational model in its own right, not a petri dish.

We need more charter schools because they are closing the achievement gap.

Last year, for the first time, Black and Latinx students in NYC charter schools achieved higher proficiency levels than their White counterparts statewide. This would have been unheard of a mere decade ago. Charter schools knock down the barriers to opportunity by casting aside the old way of doing things.

We need more charter schools because they are the most accountable public schools. When California passed a charter

school accountability bill this winter, they based it on New York’s law. The National Education Association, perhaps charter schools’ fiercest critic, gave a perfect score to New York’s accountability in a recent

report. Charter schools are monitored by their authorizers as well as state and local agencies. And despite a lot of misinformation, charter schools are subject to FOIL, the Open Meetings and Public Records Acts and audits by the City Comptroller.

This is already a model regulatory system.

What’s more, the charter sector supports the closure of schools that aren’t meeting their goals for kids. If a charter school is failing, it closes. That’s accountability. In contrast, districts face no consequences when they fail students for decades. We need to provide a better option for those students. Not because the school district is horrible, but because families shouldn’t be forced into schools that aren’t working.

Every child in this city deserves access to the best education they can find now.

Charters schools have proven to be beneficial for hundreds of thousands of children with over 50,000 children waiting for seats.

As popular as charter schools are, let’s be clear, they are a choice for families. No child is ever assigned to a charter school and there are students who are not interested in those choices.

We need more charter schools because they are the least selective high-achieving schools in NYC. While

the city debates how to open the doors for more kids to specialized high schools,

gifted and talented programs, and screened schools, public charters remain open to every child regardless of need or skill level.

All the while, charter school students are achieving and receiving admission to colleges at record numbers. ALL children deserve an opportunity to excel.

We need more charter schools because they are responsive to evolving education needs and demands. Charter schools,

though serving a disproportionate number of low-income students of color, have been criticized for not serving enough Multilingual Learners (MLL) and special education students. That has drastically changed.

Charter schools now enroll about the same number of students with IEPs as district schools. And Kindergarten MLL enrollment has increased by 51% over the last five years.

We need more charter schools because they succeed with the limited resources they receive. Arguments stating that

charters drain resources from traditional public schools have always been a red herring, meant as a way to limit charters and trap families in schools that aren’t necessarily the right fit for their children.

Families have long rejected that equation.

There are families with both district and charter school children. Why should one receive more funding than the other? It’s time public policy caught up with the fact that parents want and deserve a choice in how they educate their kids.

We need more charter schools because our new world demands change. The

new members of Congress did not propel the dialogue into the 21st century by engaging voters in the old ways. Today, over 100,000 children are learning the skills needed to step into tomorrow’s leadership guided by today’s social entrepreneurs.

In March, six high potential new schools were approved, including a new STEM high school, a school for girls aimed at building confidence and leadership skills, and a K-5 program founded by the NYC Mission Society.

However, not one of these schools will ever open its doors unless Albany takes action.

We need more charter schools in New York City. It’s past time to raise, if not completely eliminate, the cap.

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May 20, 2019

ON THE SYLL ABUS Specialized High Schools Admissions Test There are sharp divisions among state lawmakers regarding the admission process for specialized high schools in New York City. Some state lawmakers support Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to scrap the exam, which is the sole criterion for admission into the city’s elite high schools. However, the Asian American community in particular is opposed to getting rid of the test.

Whether or not the state Senate and Assembly vote to make any changes in the upcoming weeks, voices on both sides of the issue are making their opinions known.

Private school oversight A state Supreme Court judge struck down new state regulations over private schools, but the state Legislature could still act to reinstall regular evaluations of yeshivas and other religious schools. There was some talk during the budget season about making a change. Though that did not happen by the April 1 state budget deadline, religious schools do not have the leverage they did last year when state Sen. Simcha Felder determined the balance of power in the Senate. But, the issue could come up in the final weeks of the session.

For-profit schools A bill that passed the state Senate Higher Education Committee on May 14 would create a fund to reimburse students at for-profit colleges who allege fraud in degree programs.

The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, chairwoman of the Higher Education Committee, would give students up to six years to file claims and would increase the fines on for-profit colleges that engage in fraud. The bill is poised to pass the state Senate in the upcoming weeks, and a sponsor in the Assembly is expected to be announced this month.

Opting out of standardized testing A bill before the state Senate Education Committee would require school districts to notify parents of students in grades three through eight about their right to excuse their children from participating in standardized testing. The bill also would prohibit districts from soliciting or encouraging students to opt out of testing.

Retaliation against districts, schools, teachers or students based on a refusal to take part in testing would also be prohibited under the legislation, which has yet to be introduced in the Assembly.

Boards of Cooperative Educational Services Boards of Cooperative Educational Services rarely make big headlines, but these programs allow rural school districts across the state to share educational services they otherwise could not afford, from literacy programs for adults to occupational therapy for students with disabilities. However, a state law that allow the boards to lease private facilities will expire on July 1. The Assembly has already passed a five-year extension of the law. The state Senate will likely follow suit.

portive or at least nominally open to raising the cap, others are adamantly opposed.

Hearings are planned in the coming weeks to evaluate education spending and the reporting standards that apply to charters, Mayer said. And while some lawmakers might be lukewarm on charters now, the ongoing popularity of charters suggest that a deal may be possible if the governor pushes hard enough to raise the cap.

And there are reasons for Cuomo to try to deliver for charters. A March Quinnipiac University poll found that slightly more New York City voters support, rather than oppose, the idea of expanding charters in the state. Charters have also become particularly prevalent in minority-heavy areas of New York City, such as the South Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem. More than 120,000 New York City children attend charter schools, and another 52,700 are on waitlists, according to the New York City Charter School Center. Cuomo made a big push for “equity” in education during the budget season, while giving charters a $37 million increase in funding.

While reaffirming Cuomo’s support for raising the cap, Azzopardi declined to comment on what the governor has been doing to further that goal when asked by City & State.

Charter school interests donated more than $130,000 to Cuomo’s 2018 reelection campaign, and the governor has not slowed down his prolific fundraising in the first year of his third term. By staying in the good graces of charter schools, the governor may be keeping his options open for future campaigns, whether at the state or national levels. Forcing legislators to raise the cap in exchange for concessions on other issues like rent regulations could also help keep lawmakers in line

May 20, 2019

by dividing them on such a thorny issue.

Recent history suggests Democratic lawmakers could go along with an increase as long as they get something in return. In 2017, a deal was struck that effectively raised the cap while nominally keeping it in place. In exchange for an extension of mayoral control, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio agreed to an administrative change that allowed defunct “zombie” charter school slots to be reissued. A 2015 deal featured a similar win-win, with new charters allowed in New York City while the cap technically stayed at the same level. One possible bargaining chip, mayoral control of New York City schools, is off the table since it was renewed earlier this year, but lawmakers could still use the cap as leverage on other issues.

“People in my conference have been resistant to charters historically,” said Assemblyman Michael Benedetto, a

City & State New York

Democrat who chairs the Education Committee. “We have raised the cap at times after much discussion with the Second Floor and the other house.

I would certainly never exclude the idea that going forward that it might happen again – that we would raise the cap.”

Other education issues will take precedence in the coming weeks, but Mayer said upcoming hearings will examine issues that she and other lawmakers say need to be solved before they would support raising the cap. This includes how charter schools report data on topics like special needs students, English language learners and school discipline, and how that differs from traditional public schools. “We’re going to continue to want to explore that,” she said. “With respect to the raising of the cap … we’ll discuss it in conference.”

Some lawmakers who have supported charter schools in the past, such as Assembly

Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, said they are not pushing to raise the cap now – but that could change under the right conditions, especially in New York City where the cap has been reached. “I’m not interested in seeing any caps lifted in the Buffalo area,” she said. “Now, personally, I would take the same position for New York City … but if my colleagues there have an interest in lifting the cap, then I will support them.”

Charter school supporters have used big rallies at the state Capitol to pressure lawmakers in past years, including in 2015 and 2017. Supporters have targeted state lawmakers on social media and through visits to district offices recently, but the most high-profile forum lawmakers have noticed in recent weeks have been op-eds in the media where advocates have sought to portray the cap as a social justice issue. “For families where traditional school set-

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tings aren’t an option, this cap leaves them with nowhere else to turn,” Leonard Goldberg, founder and CEO of Opportunity Charter School, wrote in the Daily News on April 30.

Charter school supporters will still have to push hard to raise the cap this year, given the opposition of state lawmakers and organized labor, but they have yet to come out in force – a notable contrast to the supporters of other causes who have filled the halls of the state Capitol in recent weeks.

That could be because the one supporter who matters most is the governor. His aggressive fundraising this year suggests that the 2018 election will not be his last political campaign, and he has made a point of maintaining a centrist position on charter schools, even as he has shifted left on other issues. Whether or not Cuomo wants to – or is able to – raise the charter school cap, publicly calling for it may make political sense.

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CUNY ESTABLISHES A NEW SCHOOL DEDICATED TO PUBLIC SERVICE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

25 West 43rd Street, 19th Floor

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HE COHESION OF the New York labor movement has historically given it a policymaking clout that unions across the country envy.

But as the debate over climate change and fossil fuel divestment heats up, fault lines are emerging over whether or not pension investment decisions should be used as an instrument for setting environmental policy.

In Albany, the Fossil Fuel Divestment Act is picking up momentum with just weeks to go before the end of the session.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, would require state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to divest from 200 of the largest fossil fuel corporations over the next five years, with a more expedited sell-off for poorly performing coal companies. The $210 billion state retirement fund reportedly is holding $13 billion in fossil fuel stocks.

“As we all know, the fossil fuels are really detrimental to our state, and to our country, so we’re looking forward to getting this bill to a compromise, hopefully passing both houses and then getting it into law,” Ortiz said at an April 30 hearing on the controversial proposal.

In the state Senate, 27 lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors to the bill, still a few votes short of passing. In the Assembly, it has more than 30 co-sponsors. In both houses, the bill remains in committee.

Among labor unions, on one side are those that believe the state’s public pension funds have only one purpose: generating the maximum return for public sector workers. They assert that the big fossil fuel companies are reliable market performers.

On the other side of the debate are unions that argue that divesting from fossil fuel stocks can help slow climate change and insulate the state’s retirement portfolio from financial losses that their experts project will only get heavier as the world shifts to renewable energy.

At the center of the controversy is DiNapoli, who under the state constitution is entrusted with guaranteeing the

May 20, 2019

state meets its fiduciary obligation to pensioners. DiNapoli has been a longtime advocate of using shareholder resolutions and corporate boardroom activism as the best way to get fossil fuel companies to meaningfully address climate change. He has had some success wielding his clout on issues like corporate boardroom diversity and greater transparency for CEO compensation thanks to New York’s massive pension. The state’s Common Retirement Fund does not ac-

loss, before taking any remedial action,” Anastasia Titarchuk, the interim chief investment officer at the Common Retirement Fund, said at an April 30 hearing, according to her prepared remarks. “This so-called safety valve is not safe at all, is inconsistent with the comptroller’s fiduciary duty, and could result in significant impact for the 3,000 employers and affected taxpayers across the state.”

New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento said in a recent interview that he sup-

SESSION COUNTDOWN

ENERGY

MOVING ON FROM FOSSIL

FUELS Labor unions diverge on how divestment will affect pensions.

by B O B H E N N E L L Y tively invest in private prison or gun company stocks, but because the state comptroller doesn’t actually pick many of the companies that it invests in, the fund does invest in those types of companies through index funds, which hold a broad range of stocks to match major indices like the S&P 500.

DiNapoli’s office said the fossil fuel legislation goes too far.

“It is important to note that the bill as currently written requires the fund to lose over $1 billion due to divestment, and then write a report documenting the

ports DiNapoli’s less drastic approach. Similarly, the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents 300,000 active and retired public employees, opposes what it contends is overreach by the Legislature that will set a dangerous precedent.

“The Common Retirement Fund has never been a tool to make political statements and we do not believe that it should start now,” testified Fran Turner, CSEA’s legislative director.

“The enactment of this legislation will lead to additional divestment proposals for

industries that are currently out of favor with legislators.

This micromanaging could lead to diminished returns, a more unstable pension fund and increased contributions by government employers.”

Leading up to the legislative hearing, the Suffolk County Association of Municipal Employees released an analysis that said divestment from fossil fuel stocks to green energy companies would “substantially underperform fossil fuels and result in state pension shortfalls” requiring a $33.4 billion cash infusion over 30 years. The Subway Surface Supervisors Association, the New York State Supreme Court Officers Association and the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association oppose divestment.

However, the Working Families Party and other groups that traditionally are allied with organized labor have advocated for fossil fuel divestment. In New York City, a joint effort by Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Comptroller Scott Stringer to divest the city’s pension funds of fossil fuel holdings has gotten the enthusiastic support from the United Federation of Teachers and District Council 37, the city’s biggest public sector unions. “For the sake of future generations, we support the call by the mayor and the comptroller for responsible divestment from fossil fuels,” DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido said in a statement last year.

One labor group even testified in favor of the Krueger-Ortiz divestment bill at the state hearing. In a resolution submitted for the hearing, the Albany County Central Federation of Labor claimed that fossil fuel divestment is “the fastest growing global movement the world has ever seen,” with institutions like the California State Teachers Retirement System and hundreds of colleges and universities joining the movement. The union added: “If the planet is to continue to be habitable for human life, scientists indicate that most of the fossil fuel reserves will need to be left in the ground.”

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NVIRONMENTALISTS have ambitious plans in Albany this year: codifying aggressive targets to wean the state off of fossil fuels; a moratorium on gas pipelines; and divesting billions of dollars in state pension funds from fossil fuel companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. Already this year, lawmakers approved a statewide ban on plastic bags and passed a package of bills cracking down on toxic chemicals in consumer products.

“Gone are the days when we debated the doubts about whether climate change is happening or not,” Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York, said at a recent press conference with Democratic lawmakers.

“For far too long, commonsense environmental measures that would protect our air, water and our health had little chance of becoming law in New York.”

While several major environmental measures should be easier to advance since Republicans lost control of the state Senate, time is running out in this session for Democrats to check the remaining boxes on their environmental agenda.

Three big environmental issues remain up in the air.

The first is putting the state on a path to effectively eliminate greenhouse gas emissions statewide. The leading legislative proposal is the Climate and Community Protection Act, which mandates the elimination of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Lawmakers are also pushing for a new law that would impose a moratorium on new “fossil fuel infrastructure”

May 20, 2019

like power plants and pipelines. A recent legislative hearing on state divestment from fossil fuel companies highlighted the third front in lawmakers’ climate efforts.

These efforts all face significant opposition from energy companies and real estate developers, but the biggest obstacle may be Gov. Andrew Cuomo – and limited time. The

and Community Protection Act is the extent to which the state needs to set specific dates for emission reduction goals.

Cuomo’s “Green New Deal” contains numerous provisions that increase the state’s renewable energy goals, including a $1.5 billion investment in clean energy and plans for dramatically increasing offshore wind, solar and energy stor-

SESSION COUNTDOWN

ENVIRONMENT HOW FAST CAN NEW YORK

COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE? An ambitious timeline for a green-friendly agenda.

by Z A C H W I L L I A M S

governor said as recently as late April that he does not see any need for additional action on the environment in the coming weeks. Issues like recreational marijuana legalization, rent regulations and a possible expansion of prevailing wages are top priorities for the governor, he told WAMC in April.

It is not that Cuomo is actively opposing environmentalists’ goals; he just has a different timeline in mind. One of the key sticking points in ongoing negotiations over the Climate

age in the coming years. But Cuomo’s approach does not go as far as lawmakers want in battling climate change. “We need a plan, a roadmap that is going to guide our policy, our programs and our investment in New York state,” state Sen. Jen Metzger, a Democrat, said at a May 6 press conference.

The Cuomo administration did side with environmentalists by denying a water quality permit for the Williams pipeline, which would’ve transported natural gas from New

Jersey to Long Island. National Grid has threatened to impose a moratorium on new gas hookups on Long Island in response, but that has not dampened some lawmakers’ enthusiasm for stopping as many new fossil fuel infrastructure projects as they can. One bill, sponsored

by Metzger and Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, would ban new power plants and pipelines that use fossil fuels. The legislation would also require the state to eliminate fossil fuels from electrical generation statewide as early as 2030 and no later than 2040.

By contrast, Cuomo’s Green New Deal aims to reach 70% renewable energy by 2030. Like the divestment and climate change proposals, Cuomo agrees with activists and lawmakers in principle, but disagrees on how aggressively to move forward.

A big X-factor in transitioning the state away from fossil fuels is the rate at which technology advances. Solar and wind power technologies have made leaps in recent years, but a recent report by the New York Independent System Operator – the organization responsible for managing the state’s electric grid – shows how far the state still needs to go. If the state is to move away from exhaust-spewing automobiles and power plants, it will need more renewable energy, better transmission lines and more efficient – and cheaper – energy storage. “There’s no one silver bullet,” said Richard Dewey, the organization’s executive vice president. “There’s no magic element that’s going to come in and make these goals achievable. It’s going to be continued innovation.”

As things currently stand, the state is a “Tale of Two

May 20, 2019

City & State New York

Grids,” according to the New York Independent System Operator’s Power Trends 2019 report that was released in May. Upstate New York generates nearly 90% of its electrical energy from nuclear power or hydropower, which do not emit greenhouse gases. Additional solar or wind farms are only useful insofar as the power they generate can be sent downstate, where 70% of energy is generated from fossil fuels. About 97% of the state’s transmission facilities are 30 or more years old. It will take time and money to update them to allow upstate to send more electricity downstate.

Another issue is that solar and wind energy are produced intermittently.

The New York Independent System Operator needs enough generation capacity to accommodate electrical customers at peak hours.

The state can require as much as about 33,000 megawatts during its busiest hours of the year, but only an additional 3,000 megawatts of battery power is currently scheduled for deployment by 2030, according to the organization.

Unless battery storage technology takes a big leap forward in the coming years that would allow wind and solar power to be stored, natural gas plants will be needed in the future to fulfill peak demand and keep the electric grid going, according to group.

Climate change will not wait for technological developments or political breakthroughs on environmental policy. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report from October warned that humans have until 2030 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% from 2010 levels. New York state, which produces a few tenths of a percent of total global emissions, cannot save the world by itself, but its lawmakers are determined to ensure the state does its part.

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E HAVE 20 days – two, zero – session days to actually pass marijuana legalization in New York,” Melissa Moore, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance in New York, said at the close of a May 9 panel discussion on the future of marijuana in the state. “This is really an all hands on deck moment.”

Since that panel, advocates like Moore now have even less time to convince state lawmak-

sure of its prospects, despite maintaining “cautious optimism.” She said she had never gauged opinion on a vote outside the budget and acknowledged that doing so could be an issue for some Democratic lawmakers – though she later said she currently does not have enough votes.

“I really do believe that the only way this could get across the finish line in both houses is if (Cuomo) makes it extremely clear this is something he wants

SESSION COUNTDOWN

HEALTH CARE

RUNNING OUT OF TIME The window to legalize recreational pot is closing fast.

by R E B E C C A C . L E W I S ers to legalize recreational marijuana. And they have their work cut out for them, as the future of marijuana in this legislative session is far from certain.

When marijuana legalization was bundled into the state budget, state Sen. Liz Krueger, who sponsors the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, felt confident that she had the votes to get it passed. As part of the budget, it was just one of many issues that lawmakers were voting on, giving cover to those who might face backlash from constituents, and it had the strong support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Now, as a standalone bill, Krueger is not so

done, and he uses political capital and political weight to urge legislators who care about what he thinks about this,” Krueger told City & State.

Cuomo has since indicated that if the state Legislature is banking on his support to convince holdouts, they shouldn’t be. Asked in a radio interview on WXXI on May 10 if he would use political capital to help get the votes, Cuomo responded by saying that while he supports the bill, “arm-twisting” doesn’t work. He added that it’s a bad sign if the state Legislature is asking him to secure votes.

“It makes me nervous that they’re saying that because

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they told me they had the votes and they are going to pass it,” Cuomo said.

He added, “I would work to do it. I just now have to gauge the feasibility of it.”

This may cause some Albany observers to scratch their heads, since Cuomo has been known to twist arms and use his power to get his will done. Same-sex marriage in 2011 and the SAFE Act in 2013 are just two prominent examples, with Cuomo successfully getting his progressive priorities through the Republican-controlled state Senate. In the radio interview, Cuomo said the same-sex marriage issue was different because it involved a legal argument that went beyond ideology in a way that marijuana legalization does not.

Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, who is sponsoring the companion bill, are poised to introduce revised legislation that reflects discussions with the governor’s office. It is expected to include a much more detailed regulatory framework for recreational marijuana sales, with provisions for CBD products, hemp and an expansion of the medical marijuana program as well as a mechanism to expunge the records of people convicted of marijuana-related crimes. The revised measure is also expected to include additional funding for education, law enforcement, programs for minority entrepreneurs and reinvestment in communities disproportionately harmed by the enforcement of marijuana laws. However, changes this late in the session give lawmakers very little time to review and debate the new language before a vote.

Peoples-Stokes painted a more positive picture of the bill’s chances than her Senate counterpart. Unlike Krueger, who would not speculate yet about the outcome of potential votes – or whether there would be a vote – Peoples-Stokes expressed confidence that there is enough support in both chambers.

“I believe that most people, given the opportunity to take an up-or-down vote on this, will vote ‘yes,’” Peoples-Stokes told City & State, citing poll

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numbers that show most New Yorkers support legalization.

State Sen. Diane Savino has been a voice of pessimism among the proponents, saying that the state Legislature missed its opportunity to legalize marijuana in the budget, that the opposition is too strong for a stand-alone measure and that it won’t get done until at least 2021, after the next election cycle. It’s the reason she and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried introduced a bill expanding the existing medical marijuana program in the state, in order to pass reforms even if the recreational bill, which includes the same expansion, fails.

Doug Greene, the legislative director at marijuana advocacy group Empire State NORML, agreed with Savino’s logic that a failure to act this session would close the window for at least two years. And while he remains hopeful, Greene acknowledged that he and other advocates face an uphill battle.

“One of the things you have to remember that is central to this story is our opposition is much better organized, much better funded than we are,” Greene said, referring to the many parent-teacher groups, the Medical Society of the State of New York, law enforcement across the state and the national group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has been very active in New York.

Proponents have scheduled two lobbying days in Albany to change hearts and minds, one at the end of May and one in the middle of June. Greene said they would in particular focus on suburban lawmakers who have expressed reservations about legalization, saying they would need a “suburban strategy.” On Long Island, the Democratic county executives in both Nassau and Suffolk counties have said they would opt out of allowing local sales should marijuana become legal, indicating that constituents are not completely on board with legalization. Will there be enough time to come up with and implement the suburban strategy?

“It’s possible,” Greene said tentatively, “but it’s going to be really difficult.”

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May 20, 2019

MEDICAL M AT T E R S

Vaccination legislation New York is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades, with infections mostly contained to ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn and Rockland County. According to officials, there have been 498 confirmed cases in New York City and 225 cases in Rockland. In response to the outbreak, lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that would eliminate the religious exemption from vaccines, keeping the medical exemption as the only reason someone would be allowed to not to receive a vaccine. After initially expressing reservations about the legislation, namely around potential First Amendment issues, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said he opposes religious exemptions due to the danger they pose to public health. The bill appears to have stalled in the state Legislature, having not moved out of committee in either chamber. However, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea-Stewart Cousins said she supports the bill and plans to bring it to a floor vote soon.

New York Health Act The state will not establish a single-payer health care system this year after state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, one of the bill’s sponsors, said his chamber will not vote on the measure this session. Nonetheless, the legislation made more progress this year than it has in the nearly three decades since Assemblyman Richard Gottfried first introduced it. Rivera said that the state Senate would hold joint hearings with the Assembly to gather feedback on the New York Health Act, the first time the chamber has held hearings on the matter. The first hearing is set for May 28. Although the Assembly has passed versions of the bill before, the state Senate has never voted on it, due to the chamber’s longtime Republican majority, and senators have had little opportunity to seriously analyze and consider it.

Nurse staffing and insurance The New York State Nurses Association is once again pushing for legislation that would create safe staffing regulations for nurses in the state, a perennial issue in Albany. The union reached a historic contract with three hospital systems in New York City that included minimum staffing levels, affecting about 10,000 nurses.

However, the association has 42,000 members across the state, most of whom will not benefit from the contract terms in

New York City, so the union continues to advocate for legislation at the state level.

The bill was voted out of the Assembly Health Committee in April.

The association is raising another issue affecting its members, even catching the attention of Cuomo. Nurses say they have been denied life insurance because they have prescriptions for naloxone, an opioid blocker used during overdoses.

More nurses have been getting prescriptions so they can carry it with them as a precautionary measure against accidental exposure while treating patients in nonclinical settings. They are advocating for legislation that would make it illegal for insurance providers to discriminate based on a prescription for Narcan, a brand of naloxone.

Prescription drugs AARP New York is pushing for three bills that supporters say would decrease the costs of prescription drugs. The first seeks to create a wholesale import program for prescriptions drugs, which would require the state health commissioner to get federal certification if the bill passes. A second piece of legislation would confront “pay to delay” deals among drug manufacturers by requiring them to notify the state attorney general of any agreements that hold up the introduction of generic medications. A third bill would let the state attorney general prosecute pharmaceutical companies for price gouging. Another bill would crack down on pharmacy benefit managers – middlemen between pharmacies and manufactures – by requiring them to get state licenses and act in the best interests of health care providers.

Medical aid in dying The state Legislature is considering the Medical Aid in Dying Act, which would allow doctors to provide life-ending medication to terminally ill patients seeking to end their own lives. The issue has come up in some form or another since the 1990s, although the current version of the legislation was first introduced in 2016.

The difference this year is that Cuomo has made his first public comments on the matter. In April, the governor said he supports the legislation and would sign it. However, the Roman Catholic Church remains opposed, and legislative leaders have given no indication about where they stand on the issue.

T H E M A N S I O N AT OY S T E R B AY M AY 2 9, 2 0 1 9 | 6 :3 0 P M- 9 : 0 0 P M City & State’s power lists have been a long-standing institution in New York. Now, for the second year, we are venturing to Long Island and bringing our Power 100 list with us!

The May 27th issue will debut at a special reception gathering top brass from politics, advocacy, media, business and beyond to celebrate Long Island’s most influential people.

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CONGRESSMAN PETE KING

CONGRESSMAN THOMAS R. SUOZZI

RSVP at CityAndStateNY.com/Events For more information on programming and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Lissa Blake at lblake@cityandstateny.com

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May 20, 2019

SESSION COUNTDOWN

INFRASTRUCTURE WHO WILL PREVAIL IN NEW YORK’S

PREVAILING WAGE

FIGHT? An expansion hinges on undecided Democrats.

by Z A C H W I L L I A M S

M

ANY ISSUES before the state Legislature pit Republicans versus Democrats, but the effort to expand the use of the prevailing wage is not so simple.

Most Democratic lawmakers support a measure expanding prevailing wages, and some Republicans have signed on to the legislation in the state Senate and Assembly. Yet the union-friendly bill – which would also apply to nonunionized workers – still lacks the support it needs to pass the Senate, lawmakers say.

Some critics say people of color would not receive a fair share of the benefits brought by expanding the prevailing wage.

Civil rights activists question whether the bill would really raise pay for nonunion labor

as much as its supporters say it would. Others say it might impede affordable housing and economic development. Business groups in particular are pushing hard to limit the proposed changes, which they say could increase costs and deter development.

“I just feel that I need to understand it better,” state Sen. Rachel May, a first-term Democrat who represents the Syracuse area, told City & State.

Nonetheless, supporters say they are confident the measure will pass before the legislative session ends next month.

Organized labor is pressuring lawmakers to support the proposal, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is also pushing for a deal. Meanwhile, opponents of the bill are signaling that they are focused on influencing the

final legislation rather than stopping it altogether. The state Labor Department defines the prevailing wage as “the pay rate set by law for work on public work projects.” However, the current definition of “public work” depends on the project’s purpose, public benefit and the parties involved, according to the department.

Under the proposed expansion, exceptions would be made for some affordable housing or small-scale projects, but negotiations on where to draw the line on what will and will not be a public work are ongoing.

About a dozen Democratic state senators have not yet signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation. In the Assembly, the legislation has moved through committee and is now on the floor calendar and appears to

have enough support to pass, as it did last year.

A final vote has not been scheduled because supporters say they want to wait until the Senate and governor get on the same page with a final version, according to Assemblyman Harry Bronson, the sponsor of the legislation. “I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I would say we have a very good chance of getting it passed by the end of session,” he said. “We’re having regular conversations.

They’re fruitful. There’s movement on all sides.”

The proposal appeared primed for inclusion in the budget after organized labor made a show of force in the final days of negotiations at the end of March. But business groups and skeptical lawmakers helped nudge legislative leaders and the governor to put the proposal on hold. A coalition of groups is now trying to pick up where they left off in pushing lawmakers and the governor to a deal.

Building trades unions are aiming to sway the public and lawmakers alike through the Blue Collar Coalition that was created in mid-May along with a media campaign that argues that the legislation would help workers, spur economic development, reduce fraud and promote racial diversity in the construction industry. “It’s a benefit for all construction workers in New York,” said Michael Cinquanti, director of policy and planning for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. “We view this bill as an economic stimulus and an expansion of the middle class.”

Supporters cite studies indicating that the economic benefits of raising wages could help counter the increased costs of projects. Wages and benefits make up about a quarter of total construction costs in New York, according to a 2018 report

by Colorado State University-Pueblo on the use of the prevailing wage. A prevailing wage promotes high productivity, the report found, which mitigates the effects to the overall project from increasing labor costs.

“These claims of dramatic cost increases are overly simplistic

May 20, 2019

and inaccurate,” Colorado State University-Pueblo economics professor Kevin Duncan, who authored the study, wrote in a March 20 op-ed in the Daily News. “Most utilize an analysis that is not accepted by peer-reviewed research in the construction industry.”

Opponents of the bill say it would hurt their bottom line.

The Real Estate Board of New York has opposed the bill, as have business groups who say that it will dramatically increase costs for all types of projects that receive public support.

While developers are open to discussing ways to raise wages, they still need “flexibility” in their contracts with individual unions on “work rules, wages, benefits” and other matters, according to Mitchell Pally, CEO of the Long Island Builders Institute. “This is the No. 1 issue facing the real estate development community on Long Island,” he said.

Even some activists have joined business interests in opposing the bill, saying they are concerned about whether the benefits of the legislation would really help nonunion workers. These workers would technically be covered by the legislation, but the administrative costs associated with public projects could limit participation of companies owned by women and minorities, said Reginald Bachus, an associate pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church and founding member of the 400 Foundation, a faith-based nonprofit pushing for economic justice in the construction industry. More study is needed of diversity in organized labor and how an expansion of the prevailing wage would affect people of color, according to Bachus. “So what we’re pushing for is, don’t rush it through,” he said.

The governor has yet to publicly state his opinion on how to resolve these issues, but a Cuomo spokesman confirmed that the issue remains a priority for the administration. The governor has cited prevailing wages, along with recreational marijuana legalization and the renewal of rent regulations, as a priority. “We have to look at

City & State New York

prevailing wage, which I think is a legitimate issue,” he told WAMC on April 4.

Leadership in both houses of the state Legislature have also signaled a desire to reach an agreement that organized labor, business groups and activists can live with. “The level of attention that people are paying

to this certainly gives me reason to sense that people are serious about trying to come to an agreement,” Bronson said. Details remain to be worked out, but the sides appear to be getting closer to a deal.

Senators have yet to discuss the issue as a conference, according to state Sen. Joseph

27

Addabbo Jr., a co-sponsor of the bill, but as the end of the session looms, things could get more testy. “I really haven’t heard any of the opposition yet,” the Queens Democrat said. “And I think it’s because this bill has been lying in the weeds somewhere and it hasn’t really popped its head up yet.”

INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES Economic development database A bill sponsored by state Sen. Leroy Comrie would establish a searchable database of state economic development projects and subsidies. The legislation has not received a lot of attention, but if it passed it would list the names, locations, time periods and other details of economic development benefits from the state – the type of information that is currently difficult to locate in the opaque world of state agencies and public authorities.

Capital projects Soon after the state budget passed, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said work remained to be done in the second half of the legislative session. “The capital budget is not fully included in this budget. That is true,” he told WAMC. “We have more to negotiate on the capital side and we will do that in the coming weeks.” Just what was the governor talking about? The Cuomo administration referred City & State to the state Division of Budget. Freeman Klopott, a division spokesman, would only say that the scope and details of any possible capital projects deal is “subject to negotiations.” He declined to elaborate.

The Scaffold Law The construction industry has long sought to reform the state Scaffold Law, which makes construction companies liable for work site injuries. Opponents say the law is unnecessary because other protections are in place, while supporters say it remains critical for construction worker safety. Democratic Assemblyman John McDonald III has pushed for proportionate liability, which would make workers in some circumstances also responsible for construction accidents if they are deemed negligent.

Republican state Sen. Fred Akshar joined McDonald as a sponsor of the bipartisan bill, but the state Senate Labor Committee chairwoman, Jessica Ramos, recently defended the Scaffold Law, calling it “one of the most important laws that protect all construction workers and the fact is that the law saves lives, period.”

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CityAndStateNY.com

May 20, 2019

SESSION COUNTDOWN

LABOR

THE LABOR MOVEMENT FIGHTS FOR

FARMWORKER

RIGHTS Passing a labor standards bill is closer now than ever.

by B O B H E N N E L L Y

F

OR NEW YORK Democrats, occupying the governor’s mansion and controlling both houses of the state Legislature was like looking for El Dorado, a goal that often proved elusive but kept their sights ever focused forward. Now that the Empire State has joined the ranks of only 14 states with a deep blue “trifecta,” Democrats face a challenge in meeting the expectations of those who helped them get to the promised land.

Atop the list of stakeholders looking for results is organized labor. With 1 in 5 workers unionized, New York state has one of the highest unionization rates in the nation. The labor movement delivered a crushing defeat of the referendum on a state constitu-

tional convention in 2017, while unions helped propel Democrats to pivotal victories in the state Senate last fall.

Driving the labor agenda as the session hurtles toward the finish line is state Sen. Jessica Ramos, who has renewed an effort to pass legislation benefiting farmworkers while pushing for the passage of other bills, including a measure to strengthen the state’s existing prevailing wage law for public construction. The chairwoman of the state Senate Labor Committee came into office this year with strong union ties, having worked for unions and in immigration law, and as the daughter of immigrants, one of whom was a member of the now-defunct International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

At the top of Ramos’ agenda for the rest of the session is winning passage of the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, which would grant as many as 100,000 farmworkers basic labor rights and protections they were expressly excluded from under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act and the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. During the 80-plus years since then, resistance to farmworkers organizing and gaining legal workplace protections has remained intense, with a tiny fraction of the workforce benefiting from union membership.

During the past two decades, New York’s farmworker legislation had been championed

by Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, but with the Republicans

controlling the state Senate, farm owners and agribusiness had the upper hand. “We helped the bill reach a major milestone by securing a 32nd cosponsor for the first time in its history, meaning we have a technical majority,” Ramos told City & State in an email. “We must ensure that farmworkers are granted the rights that all other workers in our state are afforded – a day off, overtime pay, unemployment benefits and the right to collectively bargain.”

Ramos has held hearings across the state to raise the visibility of the issue in the hopes of forging a consensus. “I am talking to all stakeholders in this issue, and I have toured the state talking to farmers and farmworkers alike,” she said. “Farmwork isn’t like a 9-to-5 office job and is greatly impacted by inclement weather. I hope to come to an agreement and pass the bill by the end of session.”

Mario Cilento, the president of the New York State AFL-CIO, said in a phone interview that passing a farmworker labor standards bill, long a state labor priority, is closer now than ever before. “(Farmworkers) don’t have the right to overtime pay, which means farmworkers can work 60, 70, 80 hours a week at the discretion of their employer for as long as the employer sees fit,” Cilento said. “And because they don’t have a right to join a union, to collectively bargain, they don’t have any say on the matter.”

At a recent Albany rally for the farmworker legislation, state Labor Department Commissioner Roberta Reardon signaled Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s support for the landmark legislation that she said would protect “people who work tirelessly in the rain, in the snow, (in) the mud around dangerous animals and massive pieces of machinery. We at the Department of Labor stand behind them.”

Yet, even as the state AFL-CIO tries to deliver for farmworkers, Cilento flagged an even bigger challenge ahead in the so-called gig economy.

According to a recent study

by Cornell University’s Worker Institute and sponsored by the

New York City Clerical-Administrative Employees

Local 1549

DC37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO www.local1549.com

Bring Good Jobs to New Yorkers Who Need Them!

We are Calling on City Hall to Support New York City Clerical-Administrative Employees

Local 1549

and The New York City Council in the 2020 City Budget

Hundreds of taxpaying New Yorkers are languishing on civil service lists because the city has allowed attrition of key and important clerical-administrative positions in city agencies. These jobs are mainly in the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) and the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

In addition, in violation of civil service rules and in defiance of three arbitration rulings, the NYPD allows able-bodied uniformed personnel, including Sergeants, Lieutenants and Captains, to sit at desks and perform clerical duties that should be performed by Police Administrative Aides and Senior Police Administrative Aides. Officers are working inside, performing clerical duties, while their fellow police officers are performing patrol and enforcement duties in the street, keeping New York’s citizens, visitors and businesses safe. This is a morale issue and costs the taxpayers unwarranted expense. Civilianize 500 positions over a three year period, beginning with 100 this year, and the city will be kept safer!

Local 1549 is calling for the hiring of 400 Eligibility Specialists (ES) in HRA, the same number that was lost to attrition over the past four years. They are the essential component for communities to receive SNAP, Medicaid and HASA. This hiring will alleviate excessive forced overtime and result in less waiting time for those who need the benefits.

Local 1549 is calling for the hiring of 500 Police Communication Technicians needed to fill empty workstations at the department’s Public Safety Answering Centers, in preparation for the impending ‘text-to911’ function, and to reduce overtime and related stress. Additionally, please reach out to Police Commissioner O’Neill and the Office of Management & Budget to ask that they join Local 1549 in developing a grant to access the funds from the State surcharge on our landline and cell phone bills.

Local 1549 is calling on the city to hire from the civil service Interpreter title list and utilize the title for interpretation functions which are currently outsourced and paid for by the city.

Thank you.

Eddie Rodriguez

Alma G. Roper

Ralph Palladino

Felix Cooper

President

Executive Vice President

2nd Vice President

Secretary-Treasurer

&

Executive Board 125 Barclay Street, New York City, New York 10007, Room 415

www.local1549.com

! (212) 815-1549

30

CityAndStateNY.com

state AFL-CIO, the exponential growth in the on-demand workforce of independent contractors that’s managed by online platforms is eroding long-standing legal protections for labor.

“We have a class of workers in New York state who are being denied basic rights that most other workers have,” Cilento said in a statement when the report was issued on April 30.

“This is a turning point in our changing economy that reeks of early 20th century working conditions of low wages and discrimination.” These workers, he said, are not entitled to “minimum wage, overtime, family leave, unemployment insurance, disability or even workers’ compensation.”

“It is going to be very important for taxpayers,” Cilento said.

“These workers will be working 60 hours a week and not making even the minimum wage, which means ultimately if you have a growing percentage of the economy with workers working at these lower rates, the gener-

May 20, 2019

al public – taxpayers – are going to be subsidizing their earnings with public assistance because we have a growing number of people who are not making ends meet.”

Cilento predicts that conventional brick-and-mortar businesses will be handicapped by existing labor laws that protect their employees as their webbased competitors are allowed to evade them.

“This is really much bigger (than people realize), and it is only going to get worse because we know it will expand exponentially over the next decade or so,” said Cilento, whose labor organization is in the process of working with state legislators draft legislation to protect contract workers.

Another measure that could benefit organized labor has already passed the state Senate – a bipartisan bill that would allow workers to access unemployment insurance after one week.

Current law requires workers wait for eight weeks before they can access the benefits, which critics of the legislation say, in

effect, subsidizes labor strikes.

The bill has yet to be passed by the Assembly Labor Committee, where the bill will test the influence of organized labor.

Cilento said the AFL-CIO is also lobbying Albany to end the erosion of the state’s long-standing commitment to guaranteeing that local governments and authorities pay a prevailing wage when it comes to the construction of public buildings and infrastructure.

“The prevailing wage rate is written into the state constitution, but the problem is (that) over the last 20 to 30 years, it has been watered down and more and more projects that should have been classified as public works haven’t been,” he said.

“Our position is clearly that if there are taxpayer dollars being used on any project, they should pay the prevailing wage rate.”

Fiscal conservatives fault the state prevailing wage requirement for driving up the cost of public infrastructure by double digits. A 2017 Empire Center for Public Policy analysis

found the law “drives up total construction costs by 13% to 25%, depending on the region, which will translate into billions of dollars in added taxpayer-funded spending.”

But for state Sen. John Liu, a first-term lawmaker from Queens, reinforcing the existing prevailing wage law is a top priority because it ensures taxpayer dollars are spent providing well-paying union jobs for tens of thousands of New Yorkers. He said as the session comes to a close “everybody under the sun” will want “some kind of carveout, meaning an exemption from the prevailing wage requirements.”

“I don’t think it should ever be just a matter of cost where a project or a contractor would be exempt from the prevailing wage requirements,” Liu added. “(The) prevailing wage should not be considered a cost of business. It is a protection of a union’s right to collectively bargain, a right that government should not undermine.”

-with reporting by Zach Williams

PUBLIC MONEY = PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY

CLOSE THE PREVAILING WAGE LOOPHOLE.

■

May 20, 2019

S

ECRECY OVER police records is enshrined in New York state Civil Rights Law Section 50-a, a hotly contested law that has been litigated up to New York’s highest court in recent years. Now, Section 50-a is getting more scrutiny than ever.

A report commissioned by the NYPD recommended that the department support amending the law to allow for greater disclosure. And the high-profile May trial of NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo is putting internal police discipline in the spotlight.

Since Democrats have full control of the government in Albany, criminal justice reform and transparency advocates are hoping to repeal 50-a, and to stop treating first responders’ records differently than other public servants. But opposition from police unions – and lukewarm responses from the governor and the state’s biggest police department – may keep the bill from passing before the end of the session.

“It seems to me the public deserves transparency,” Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, who sponsors the repeal bill, A2513, told City & State. “The time has come to finally get rid of it.”

Section 50-a makes all “personnel records used to evaluate performance towards continued employment or promotion” for police officers, firefighters and correction officers “confidential and not subject to inspection or review” except by court order.

The law was passed in the 1970s, but only become a major focus of police transparency activists in the past few years.

“50-a, it’s always represented an obstacle, but it’s never been as bad as it is now,” said Michael Sisitzky, who leads the police transparency and accountability campaign at the New York Civil Liberties Union. He told City & State that police departments and unions have been expanding their interpretation of what counts as a personnel record in recent years – the most prominent example coming in 2016, when the NYPD abruptly stopped publicly posting the outcomes of administrative trials. The NYCLU and its legal

City & State New York

SESSION COUNTDOWN LAW ENFORCEMENT

REFORMERS AIM TO

REPEAL OR REVISE 50-A Will police transparency get the A-OK?

by J E F F C O L T I N

allies have brought lawsuits meant to weaken the law, but the courts have usually ruled against transparency, limiting what records can be disclosed.

That leaves legislation as the only route, O’Donnell said. He sponsored a bill to repeal 50-a the past two legislative sessions as well, but the bill never got out of committee. Since there has never been a vote, it’s unclear how much support there is for the bill, although more than 20 Assembly members have signed on as co-sponsors.

As of early May, O’Donnell said he hadn’t started counting votes yet, but planned to send a letter to colleagues soon.

O’Donnell has an influential constituency on his side: the press. Ten media companies, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, signed on to an amicus curiae brief in July 2018 supporting the wider disclosure of records blocked by 50-a, saying their release is in the “vital public interest.” The Daily News, New York Post and Times editorial boards, which agree on very little, have all written in

support of reforming the law.

“Since the press wants this very much,” O’Donnell said, “it puts a lot of (lawmakers) in a difficult circumstance to say they’re going with the PBA (and) against (the) freedom of information.”

The Police Benevolent Association, the union representing rank-and-file NYPD officers, has been the loudest opposition to wider records disclosure.

The union frames it as an issue of safety, saying officers could be targeted and that the bill is being pushed by “professional anti-police activists.”

“Their real goal is not to improve police discipline,” PBA President Patrick Lynch said in a statement provided to City & State. “It is to completely delegitimize police officers and the work we do, so that more criminals will be able to escape justice.”

While the PBA doesn’t want to change 50-a, NYPD leadership has made it clear that the department supports amending the bill, not fully repealing it. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, rarely one to publicly disagree with his police department, also backs reforms.

31

Though Gov. Andrew Cuomo has championed criminal justice reforms lately, he has been relatively quiet on 50-a. Cuomo used the issue in 2016 to tweak his rival de Blasio, suggesting he was more progressive on police accountability than the mayor.

But the governor has said little on the subject since, and didn’t mention the controversial law in his 2019 State of the State book, despite a section on “increas(ing) public trust in New York’s law enforcement agencies.” Asked to comment on the proposed reforms, Cuomo spokesman Don Kaplan wrote: “As we’ve previously said, we would be open to considering changes to the law.”

Lawmakers in Albany have options for changes. Brooklyn state Sen. Kevin Parker is the sponsor of two bills, S4214 and S4215, that would amend 50-a to allow for greater disclosure without repealing the law entirely. Bronx state Sen. Jamaal Bailey is sponsoring a full repeal bill, S3695, that matches O’Donnell’s in the Assembly.

Bailey told City & State that he’s having conversations with stakeholders, and while he’s open to compromise, he thinks a full repeal of 50-a is the best option for transparency. As chairman of the Codes Committee, Bailey has some pull over which bills move – and presided over the debate on a bill, S335, that suggests 50-a reform might be difficult. That “Blue Lives Matter” bill would make violence targeting first responders a hate crime, and the divisions were similar to the debate over 50-a.

As of May 13, the 50-a legislation remained in the Codes Committee, and Bailey said there’s “no timetable” for moving it forward. Though repealing 50-a is not his top priority personally, he thinks there’s more energy from the conference as a whole behind passing the HALT Solitary Confinement Act – and that repealing 50-a is part of a process that could take years, not months.

“I think that our justice system still needs more of an overhaul, but it’s going to take more than one session,” Bailey said. “But I think that I’m up to the task.”

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CityAndStateNY.com

S

EVERAL LEGISLATIVE proposals – legalizing recreational marijuana, expanding prevailing wages, raising the charter school cap in New York City – are dominating the debate in Albany. But there are plenty of other issues under discussion in the state Legislature.

Here are some of the highlights.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT A May 24 hearing on sexual harassment in the workplace will highlight an issue that generated a lot of buzz earlier this year, when lawmakers held the state Legislature’s first hearing on sexual harassment in over a quarter century. The upcoming hearing could pave the way for a litany of bills that have yet to pass various committees. Some bills would change the standard of what constitutes sexual harassment. Others would require the state to draft a model sexual harassment policy and extend the amount of time in which a sexual harassment complaint can be filed. Taken together, the bills could dramatically change the state’s approach to sexual harassment cases.

TARGETING TRUMP The state Senate passed two bills in early May aimed at President Donald Trump. One would require the state tax commissioner to provide tax returns to certain congressional committees upon request.

A second bill would allow for the state prosecution of people who have received presidential pardons for federal crimes.

Neither bill has passed yet in

May 20, 2019

the Assembly, though the double jeopardy bill is expected to pass. The future is less certain for the tax return bill, as lawmakers have been cooler to the idea, reportedly out of concern over the political nature of the bill and its wider effects.

ETHICS The Assembly passed a bill that would require state agencies to

duct. Another bill would establish a nonpartisan legislative budget office to provide lawmakers with information on the state budget, appropriations and other legislation.

ELECTION REFORMS Advocates want the state Legislature to pass a bill this year that would set up a system of publicly financed political

SESSION COUNTDOWN

OMNIBUS

STOPPING SEXUAL HARASSMENT

CLEANING UP ALBANY

TAKING ON

TRUMP

by Z A C H W I L L I A M S

consult a judge when records are requested under the Freedom of Information Law related to an ongoing legal proceeding.

The judge would then determine whether the records could be made public. The legislation is likely to pass the Senate.

Two other pieces of legislation remain in committee. One of them, a proposed state constitutional amendment, would replace the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics with a new body modeled after the existing Commission on Judicial Con-

campaigns, rather than leave it to the commission established in the new state budget.

The odds of accomplishing this remain remote, but other election reforms could still advance. One bill that is before committees in the state Senate and Assembly would restore voting rights to parolees. Another bill would allow the use of campaign funds for child care. A May 30 hearing will focus on automatic voter registration, an idea that would require the Legislature to ap-

prove a constitutional amendment before it could go to voters in 2021.

MOBILE SPORTS BETTING Legislation that would legalize mobile sports betting statewide passed a state Senate committee on May 13, but it is far from a done deal. Lawmakers discussed the proposal at a May 8 hearing to tax casinos an 8.5% rate for in-person sports wagering and 12% for online bets. But a key issue is whether or not supporters can get around the state constitutional concerns by placing web servers for online betting at the upstate casinos where gambling is currently allowed.

That is a key reason why the Cuomo administration has yet to get behind the bill. Consumer advocates, and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, have expressed concerns about the addictive potential of online sports gambling.

GUN CONTROL The state Senate passed legislation that bans guns manufactured from 3D-printed parts due to the guns being untraceable and potentially undetectable by X-rays or other scanning technology. The Assembly could pass the bill in the coming weeks. Technical issues with the bill language kept the proposal out of a gun control package that passed the Legislature earlier this year.

Another bill gained headlines late last year that would require prospective gun owners to have their social media accounts and search engine history reviewed before they could purchase a gun. That bill remains stuck in committee.

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May 20, 2019

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Address to be maintained in CA: 11040 BOLLINGER CANYON RD., STE. E-874, SAN RAMON, CA 94582.

Arts of Org. filed with the CA SECY. OF STATE, 1500 11TH ST., SACRAMENTO, CA. Purpose: any lawful activities.

CITY STAR RESTAURANT LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/05/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Jameel A. Ali, 530 W. 45th St., #15K, NY, NY 10036.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM Notice of Formation of BBRE MANAGEMENT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/15/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 280 St. Marks Ave., 3C, Brooklyn, NY 11238. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Matthew Beer at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Real estate investment and management.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT KINGS COUNTY WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT AS TRUSTEE FOR PRETIUM MORTGAGE ACQUISITION TRUST, Plaintiff against RAYMOND L. MENDEZ, et al Defendants Attorney for Plaintiff(s) Knuckles, Komosinski & Manfro, LLP, 565 Taxter Road, Suite 590, Elmsford, NY 10523 Attorney (s) for Plaintiff (s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered March 15, 2019, I will sell at public auction to the highest bidder at Room 224 of Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11201 on May 30, 2019 at 2:30 PM. Premises known as 920 East 102nd Street, Brooklyn, New York 11236. Block 8209 Lot 47. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York. Approximate Amount of Judgment is $531,036.70 plus interest and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index No 15758/2014. Cash will not be accepted at the sale.

Steven Z. Naiman, Esq., Referee 2296-003036 Name of LP: Six & Cornelia Associates, L.P. Cert. of Adoption filed with NY Dept. of State on 1/15/2019. Office location: NY County. Sec. of State designated agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o ABC Management Corp., 152 W. 57th St., 12th Fl., NY, NY 10019.

Name/addr. of each genl. ptr. available from Sec. of State. Term: until 12/31/2052. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Notice of Formation of Frost Creative, LLC filed with SSNY on March 7, 2019. Office: NY County.

SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 352 East 89th Street Apt 1D New York, NY 10128.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Vivir hair, LLC filed with SSNY on January 11, 2019Office: NY County.

SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 430 Amsterdam Avenue Apt#4C New York, NY 10024. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

MBL MET LLC Art. Of Org. Filed Sec. of State of NY 3/15/2019. Off. Loc.: New York Co. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY to mail copy of process to The LLC, c/o New Aim Realty, PO Box 933, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632.

Purpose: Any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of SI SoHo LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 4/4/19. Office location: NY County. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Karen Robinovitz, 259 W. 10th St., #6G, NY, NY 10014, principal business address. Purpose: any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Hong Rong Realty LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 04/03/2019.

Office located in Kings County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to: Hong Rong Realty LLC, 866 68th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11220. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

33

Notice of Formation Wertling Family Holding LLC Arts of Org. Filed with Secy. of State of NY 4/5/2019. Ofc Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC, 435 Edinboro Rd, Staten Island, NY 10306.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

SOLEInfusion, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 02/19/19. Off. Loc.: Westchester Co. SSNY desig. as agt. upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: SOLEInfusion, LLC, 227 Hawthorne Ave., Yonkers, NY, 10705. The Reg. Agt. is Basil B. Cocheekaran at the same address. General Purposes.

Notice of Formation of ATTUNED MOVEMENT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/24/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 41 W. 83rd St., Ste. 1B, NY, NY 10024. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of ANANDAH CARTER SUCCESS COACHING LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/25/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Attn: Anthony F. Vitiello, Connell Foley LLP, 888 7th Ave., NY, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

CREATIVE @ TABLE OF CONTENT LLC, Arts of Org. filed SSNY 12/26/18.

Office: NY Co. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process may be served & mail to FREDERICK (aka RICK) KNIEF, 345 SEVENTH AVE., 22ND FL., NY, NY 10001. General Purpose.

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CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF KINGS U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR RESIDENTIAL ASSET MORTGAGE PRODUCTS, INC., MORTGAGE ASSET-BACKED PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIS 2006-NC3, V. NICHOLAS CALABRESE A/K/A NICHOLAS A. CALABRESE, ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated March 6, 2019, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Kings, wherein U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR RESIDENTIAL ASSET MORTGAGE PRODUCTS, INC., MORTGAGE ASSET-BACKED PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIS 2006-NC3 is the Plaintiff and NICHOLAS CALABRESE A/K/A NICHOLAS A. CALABRESE, ET AL. are the Defendants. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 360 ADAMS STREET ROOM 224, BROOKLYN, NY 11201, on May 9, 2019 at 2:30 PM, premises known as 2176 EAST 36TH STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11234: Block 8535, Lot 2: ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, COUNTY OF KINGS, CITY AND STATE OF NEW YORK Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 519461/2016. Steven Naiman, Esq. - Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

Notice of Formation of Front Room Creations, LLC filed with SSNY on April 8, 2019. Office: Westchester County.

SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 25 Merlin Av, Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

125 MERRICK LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 04/16/2019.

Office loc: NY County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Xia Xun Jiang/Ai Ying Wong, 32 Monroe St. Suite K1, NY, NY 10002. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF AMG 159 ASHFORD LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on March 15, 2019. Office location: WESTCHESTER County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/ her is: 4 Blanchard Road, Greenwich CT 06831.

The principal business address of the LLC is: 159 Ashford Avenue, Dobbs Ferry NY 10522. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Formation of TTMH Henrietta Holdings LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with NY Dept. of State on 4/9/19. Office location: NY County. Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: c/o Corporate Creations Network Inc., 15 N. Mill St., Nyack, NY 10960. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

May 20, 2019

Notice of Qualification of Eurofins EAG Materials Science, LLC. Authority filed with NY Dept. of State on 1/10/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. bus. addr.: 2425 New Holland Pike, Lancaster, PA 17601. LLC formed in DE on 7/2/08.

NY Sec. of State designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served and shall mail process to: Cogency Global Inc., 10 E. 40th St., 10th Fl., NY, NY 10016. DE addr. of LLC: 850 New Burton Rd., Ste. 201, Dover, DE 19904. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Sec. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: all lawful purposes.

Notice of Formation of 436 and 442 East 13th Street Investors LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/19. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 64 2nd Ave., 2nd Fl., NY, NY 10003.

Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of: Westchester Property Solutions LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 03/04/2019. Office loc: Westchester County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn NY, 11228 . Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF SUPTOWN MUSIC & ARTS LLC. Filed with the Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/15/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY designated as agent for service of process. SSNY shall mail process to 854 W 180TH ST, #1E, NEW YORK, NY, 10033. Purpose: any lawful act or activity

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of BURKE LE DUC SAFAROV LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/10/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/08/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

DEITYNY, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 03/11/2019, effective date on 05/01/2019.

Office loc: NY County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Renee Bishop, 377 E 33rd St. Apt 19E, NY, NY 10016. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF East-West Property US LLC filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/18/2019.

Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served.

The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is: 641 Lexington Avenue, 22/F, New York, NY 10022.

The principal business address of the LLC is: New York. Purpose: any lawful act or activity

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

1355 Acquisition Manager LLC - Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/4/19.

Office location: NY Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer LLP, 360 Lexington Ave, 13th Fl, NY, NY 10017 Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of So Satisfying LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/09/19.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Dor Mizrahi, 100 West 26th St., Apt. 10F, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF QUAL. of Maplewood Owner LLC. Auth. filed Sec’y of State (SSNY) 4/12/19. Off. Loc: NY Co. LLC org. in DE 3/22/19. SSNY desig. as agent of LLC upon whom proc. against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of proc. to NRAI, 28 Liberty St., New York, NY 10005, the Reg. Agt upon whom proc. may be served. DE off. Addr.: 160 Greentree Dr., Ste 101, Dover, DE 19904. Cert of Form. on file: SSDE, Townsend Bldg., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activity.

1355 Acquisition Holdco LLC - Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 3/4/19.

Office location: NY Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer LLP, 360 Lexington Ave, 13th Fl, NY, NY 10017 Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Formation of LYDIA ANNE DESIGNS, LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/11/19. Office location: NY County.

No PPOB. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

Original addr. of process was Lydia Radandt, 345 W. 14th St., Apt. 2D, NY, NY 10014. Per Cert. of Change filed with SSNY on 03/25/19, SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543, now also designated as regd. agent of the company upon whom and at which process against the company can be served. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation Keystone Asssets 1 LLC Arts of Org. Filed with Secy. of State of NY 1/25/2019. Ofc Loc.: Richmond Co. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to The LLC, 1911 Richmond Ave, NY 10314.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

WORLD CUTS BARBERSHOP, LLC, filed with SSNY 03/13/2019.

Office loc: Westchester County, NY. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Waldermar Morales, President/Owner, 2150 Central Park Ave Yonkers, NY 10710. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation: 8712 DITMAS AVE LLC, Art. Of Org. filed with Sec. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/27/2019.

Office Loc: Kings County.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: 8712 DITMAS AVE, BROOKLYN, NY 11236 Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of AJK ZIGG INVESTORS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/11/19. Office location: NY County. Princ. office of LLC: 1009 Park Ave., Apt. 9A, NY, NY 10028. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Adam Katz at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

May 20, 2019

NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC AUCTION Supreme Court of New York, KINGS County.

WILMINGTON TRUST, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE FOR MFRA TRUST 20142, Plaintiff, -againstLEYLA DAVIS; NEW YORK CITY ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL BOARD; KAYLIE JOHNSON; KYANNE JOHNSON; ANSIL JOHNSON; KAREN LIVERPOOL; AUDREY LIVERPOOL; VANESSA SIMPSON; LEO COLON; JESSICA CRUZ, Index No. 512846/2016.

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly dated, January 9, 2019 and entered with the Kings County Clerk on January 18, 2019, Steven Z. Naiman, Esq., the Appointed Referee, will sell the premises known as 203 Cornelia Street, Brooklyn, New York 11221 at public auction in Room 224 of the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201, on May 30, 2019 at 2:30 P.M. All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York known as Block: 3376; Lot: 54 will be sold subject to the provisions of filed Judgment, Index No. 512846/2016. The approximate amount of judgment is $891,323.70 plus interest and costs.

FRIEDMAN VARTOLO LLP 85 Broad Street, Suite 501, New York, New York 10004, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

Notice of Filing of AMERICAN LIVING, LLC Articles of Organization with the Secretary of State of New York on 3/13/2019.

Office Location: Westchester County. Sheila Harding designated as agent of LLC upon whom process may be served with a process mailing address of 89 Heath Place, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Purpose: Any Lawful purpose.

NOTICE OF SALE Supreme Court County Of Kings PennyMac Corp., Plaintiff AGAINST Hyacinth Mcculloch, et al, Defendant Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale duly dated 3/7/19 and entered on 3/14/19, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction at the Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY on May 30, 2019 at 02:30 PM premises known as 1319E 98th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11236. All that certain plot piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements erected, situate, lying and being in the County of Kings, City and State of New York, BLOCK: 8244, LOT: 21.

Approximate amount of judgment is $558,755.81 plus interests and costs.

Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 514303/2017.

Dana L. Jenkins, Referee FRENKEL LAMBERT WEISS WEISMAN & GORDON LLP 53 Gibson Street Bay Shore, NY 11706

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of OLLIE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/16/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 03/07/17. Princ. office of LLC: 450 Park Ave. South, 5th Fl., NY, NY 10016. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qual. of SPRING LAFAYETTE, LLC, Authority filed with the SSNY on 02/27/2014, Name change to: 63 SPRING LAFAYETTE, LLC on 03/11/2014 .

Office loc: NY County.

LLC formed in DE on 10/28/2013. SSNY is designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: Jack Terzi 362 5th Ave 12FL NY, NY 10001.

Address required to be maintained in DE: Vcorp Svcs, LLC, 1811 Silverside Rd, Wilmington DE 19810.

Cert of Formation filed with DE Div. of Corps, 401 Federal St., Ste 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Qualification of JANE ROTROSEN AGENCY LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/17/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Florida (FL) on 03/28/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Jane R. Berkey, at the FL addr. of the LLC:13248 50th St. South, Wellington, FL 33414. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of DAGNY HOLDINGS LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/23/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 77 W. 24th St., Apt. 22E, NY, NY 10010. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Purpose: Asset management.

Notice of Formation of BENJAMIN & ELLIE LLC filed with SSNY on April 19, 2019. Office: NY County. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to LLC: 276 5th Avenue Siute 704-3060, NY, NY 10001.

Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF SALE SUPREME COURT - COUNTY OF KINGS SRP 2012-4, LLC, Plaintiff, Against

Index

No.: 520351/2016 EZEKIEL AKANDE, ET AL., Defendant(s).

Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale, duly entered 12/11/2018, I, the undersigned Referee, will sell at public auction, in Room 224 of Kings County Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 on 6/6/2019 at 2:30 pm, premises known as 34 Jackson Place, Brooklyn, NY 11215, and described as follows: ALL that certain plot, piece or parcel of land, with the buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate, lying and being in the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, City and State of New York, Block 1055 and Lot 42.

The approximate amount of the current Judgment lien is $376,471.69 plus interest and costs. The Premises will be sold subject to provisions of the aforesaid Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale; Index # 520351/2016.

Leonard Spector, Esq., Referee.

Richland & Falkowski, PLLC, 35-37 36th Street, 2nd Floor, ASTORIA, NY 11106 Dated: 4/9/2019

PB

Notice of Qualification of MREC MANAGEMENT, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/30/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/22/15. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: MREC Management, LLC, 23975 Park Sorrento, Ste. 420, Calabasas, CA 91302. Address to be maintained in DE: 9 E. Loockerman St., Ste. 311, Dover, DE 19901. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, Division of Corporations - John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

TVI C O M M U N I C AT I O N S , LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 4/11/19. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: US Corp Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Ave, #202, BK, Ny 11228.

Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

MADSQPARK, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 04/15/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: MADSQPARK, LLC, Attn: Walter Kulakowski, 208 Fifth Avenue 2W, New York, NY 10010. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose Notice of Qualification of O&Y Jay LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/18/19.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/17/19.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: c/o Adam America Real Estate, 850 Third Ave., Ste. 13D, NY, NY 10022; Attn: Omri Sachs. Address to be maintained in DE: National Registered Agents, Inc., 160 Greentree Dr., Ste. 101, Dover, DE 19904. Arts of Org. filed with the DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

35

Notice of Formation of 140 EAST 65 NYC LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/25/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: c/o Forbes Family Trust, 767 5th Ave., 6th Fl., NY, NY 10153. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Seward & Kissel LLP, Attn: Susan J. Lorin, One Battery Park Plaza, NY, NY 10004. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Lucky Gus, LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/24/19.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: eResidentAgent, Inc., 99 Washington Ave., Ste. 805A, Albany, NY 12210, also the registered agent upon whom process may be served. Purpose: any lawful activities.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF JDD PROPERTIES LLC. Art of Org filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 4/25/2019.

Office loc: NY County.

SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is: 7014 13TH AVENUE, SUITE 202, BROOKLYN, NY 11228.

The principal business address of the LLC is: 15 E 117TH ST, FL2, NEW YORK, NY 10035. Purpose: any lawful act or activity NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1318049 FOR WINE & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL WINE & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 330 WHITEPLAINS ROAD EASTCHESTER, NY 10709. WESTCHESTER COUNTY, FOR ON-PREMISE CONSUMPTION. COSIMO AND JOHNNY’S CORP

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

36

CityAndStateNY.com / PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES

May 20, 2019

NOTICE OF SALE

PUBLIC NOITCE

PUBLIC NOTICE

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF KINGS

Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at three locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 42 feet on a building with an overall height of 51 feet at the approx. vicinity of 210 Beach 47th, Far Rockaway, Queens County, NY 11691. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 76 feet on a building with an overall height of 77 feet at the approx. vicinity of 840 West End Avenue, New York, New York County, NY 10025.

Antennas will be installed at a top height of 51 feet on a building with an overall height of 51 feet at the approx. vicinity of 125 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY 11215.

Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Theresa, t.docal@ trileaf. com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-853-7128.

Cellco Partnership and its controlled affil-i a t e s doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at three locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 101 feet on a building with an overall height of 570 feet at the approx. vicinity of 250 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, Kings County, NY 11217.

Antennas will be installed at a top height of 86 feet on a building with an overall height of 96 feet at the approx. vicinity of 2819 Fredrick Douglass Boulevard, New York, New York County, NY 10039. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 150 feet on a building with an overall height of 157 feet at the approx. vicinity of 1185 1st Avenue, New York, New York County, NY 10065. Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Theresa, t.docal@ trileaf.com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-853-7128.

DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR INDYMAC INDX MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-AR6, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2006-AR6, V. PROSPER NARCISSE; ET AL. NOTICE OF SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN pursuant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated March 6, 2019, and entered in the Office of the Clerk of the County of Kings, wherein DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR INDYMAC INDX MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-AR6, MORTGAGE PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES SERIES 2006-AR6 is the Plaintiff and PROSPER NARCISSE; ET AL. are the Defendants. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at public auction at the KINGS COUNTY COURTHOUSE, ROOM 224, 360 ADAMS STREET, BROOKLYN NY 11201, on June 13, 2019 at 2:30 PM, premises known as 498 EAST 53RD STREET, BROOKLYN, NY 11203: Block 4737, Lot 20: ALL THAT CERTAIN PLOT, PIECE OR PARCEL OF LAND, WITH THE BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS THEREON ERECTED SITUATE, LYING AND BEING IN THE BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN, COUNTY OF KINGS, CITY AND STATE OF NEW YORK Premises will be sold subject to provisions of filed Judgment Index # 506122/2015. Jageshwar Sharma, Esq. - Referee. RAS Boriskin, LLC 900 Merchants Concourse, Suite 310, Westbury, New York 11590, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

DAVID HECHLER PUBLISHING LLC, Arts of Org. filed with SSNY 02/27/19. Office loc. NY County. David H. Gendelman, Esq. has been designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: LLC, Attn: David H. Gendelman, Esq., 49 West 37th Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Purpose: any lawful purpose.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1314837 FOR LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR

BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL LIQUOR, WINE, & BEER IN A CATERING HALL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 117-03 HILLSIDE AVE. RICHMOND HILL, NY 11418, QUEENS COUNTY, FOR ON PREMISE CONSUMPTION. 117 03 HILLSIDE CATERING INC

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

ARIS CLOSET, LLC. of Org. filed with SSNY 4/19/2019. Office loc: Kings County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: 2420 Glenwood road apt 4c,Brooklyn N.Y. Purpose : Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of WELL WOMAN INTEGRATIVE PSYCHIATRY PLLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/04/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of PLLC: One Penn Plaza, Ste. 6301, NY, NY 10119. SSNY designated as agent of PLLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the PLLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Medicine.

MindScience LLC Exist Date: 1/10/2019 Owner: Cathy Trentalancia 150 Charles Street #2AN New York, NY 10014 ctrenta@gmail.com 917-710-1232 Office at 150 Charles Street; New York, NY 10014 Registered Agent: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228 NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A LICENSE, SERIAL # 1318077 FOR WINE & BEER HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR BY THE UNDERSIGNED TO SELL WINE & BEER AT RETAIL UNDER THE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL LAW AT 75 UTICA AVE BROOKLYN, NY 11233. KINGS COUNTY, FOR ON-PREMISE CONSUMPTION. SAVANNAH CAFÉ LLC

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BRIGHTLUMINA LLC Exist Date: 1/25/2019 Owner: Dr. Salvatore Trentalancia 150 Charles Street New York, NY 10014 strenta@aol.com 917-455-9064 Office at 150 Charles Street; New York, NY 10014 Registered Agent: United States Corporation Agents, Inc. 7014 13th Avenue, Suite 202 Brooklyn, NY 11228

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EXALTATION OF LARKS, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY 04/04/2019. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 227 E.57th St., Suite 9F, New York, NY 10022. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Qualification of HGW ADVISORS, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/07/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/16/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674.

Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of HUDSON SQUARE REALTY, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 07/05/18. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 06/28/18. Princ. office of LLC: 77 W. 66th St., NY, NY 10023. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674.

Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Real estate ownership.

2001 Story Tower E LLC. Authority filed SSNY 03/27/19. Office: NY Co. LLC formed DE 03/25/19.

Exists in DE: c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 160 Greentree Dr #101 Dover, DE 19904. SSNY designated agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served & mail to 1 State St., 32nd Fl., NY, NY 10004. Cert of Formation Filed: Secy. of State, Corporation Dept., 401 Federal St. Ste. 4, Dover DE 19901. General Purpose.

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lNotice is hereby given that a license, number (PENDING) for on-premises Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell liquor at retail in a Restaurant under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 176 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10011 for on premises consumption.

MVLH HOSPITALITY GROUP LLC d/b/a Loulou Notice of Formation of MYND MVMT LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/09/19. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: Attn: Samantha R. Benigno, 56 W. 11th St., Apt. 2FE, NY, NY 10011. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Emmes & Company LLC, Arts of Org. filed SSNY 11/05/18. Office: NY Co. SSNY designated agent of LLC upon whom process may be served & mail to 44 West 55th St., Ste. 500, NY, NY 10019.

Name and address of registered agent upon whom process may be served: National Registered Agents, Inc., 111 Eighth Ave., NY, NY 10011. General Purpose.

Notice of formation of 221 DEVOE 2B HOLDINGS LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 5/7/19.

Office location: Kings County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to: 62 Orchard St., Demarest, NJ 07627. Purpose: any lawful act.

PUBLIC and LEGAL NOTICES / CityAndStateNY.com

May 20, 2019

Notice of Qualification of GOTHAM GREEN PARTNERS SPV IV, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 04/16/19. Office location: NY County.

LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/04/19. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State - State of DE, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of PRIVATE EQUITY IV (E&F) GP LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/06/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/01/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Summit Rock Advisors, LP, 9 W. 57th St., 12th Fl., NY, NY 10019. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of JFRP LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with SSNY on 02/25/19. Office loc: BX County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, Attn: Pedro J Perez, 3123 Sedgwick Ave, BX, NY 10463. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes to collocate wireless communications antennas at three locations. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 118 feet on a building with an overall height of 148 feet at the approx. vicinity of 420 West 23rd Street, New York, New York County, NY 10011. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 75 feet on a building with an overall height of 80 feet at the approx. vicinity of 13113 Kew Gardens Road, Kew Gardens, Queens County, NY 11418. Antennas will be installed at a top height of 91 feet on a building with an overall height of 91 feet at the approx. vicinity of 55 Palmer Avenue, Bronxville, Westchester County, NY 10708. Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Madison, m.warfield@trileaf.com, 8600 LaSalle Rd, Suite 301, Towson, MD, 21286, 410-853-7128.

LEGALNOTICES@ CITYANDSTATENY.COM

Notice of Qualification of SAVANNA IV 521 FIFTH AVENUE GP, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 05/10/19. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 04/23/19. Princ. office of LLC: 430 Park Ave., 12th Fl., NY, NY 10022. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of the State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St. - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

37

Notice is hereby given that a license, number 1318034 for summer seasonal wine and on-premises Liquor has been applied for by the undersigned to sell liquor at retail in a Restaurant/ Café under the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law at 100 West 33rd St. aka 111 West 32nd St. - Spaces E,F,G,H and J, New York, NY 10001 for on premises consumption.

Three Liter New York LLC d/b/a Rose Mansion

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38

CityAndStateNY.com

May 20, 2019

CITY & STATE NEW YORK MANAGEMENT & PUBLISHING CEO Steve Farbman, President & Publisher Tom Allon tallon@cityandstateny.com, Comptroller David Pirozzi, Business & Operations Manager Patrea Patterson, Administrative Assistant Lauren Mauro

Who was up and who was down last week

LOSERS FARAH LOUIS Say “orevwa” to Miami, the new Little Haiti is in Central Brooklyn after former Jumaane Williams staffer Farah Louis emerged victorious in a special election last Tuesday to fill the ex-councilman and now-public advocate’s empty seat. Louis may be part of the growing Haitian American bloc in local politics, but she won thanks to a multicultural coalition … that she’s hoping will stick together when she has to defend her seat in the primary election, which is just a month away.

OUR PICK

OUR PICK

WINNERS

Would you rather have your building emission standards press conference ignored, or covered by every national media outlet after pro-Trump protestors photo-bombed you? Would you rather nobody attend your presidential campaign announcement, or have a large and passionate crowd of police union members?

The question for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wasn’t “winner or loser” last week. It was “strategic political operative or gaffe-prone bumbler?”

EDITORIAL editor@cityandstateny.com Editor-in-Chief Jon Lentz jlentz@cityandstateny.com, Managing Editor Ryan Somers, Senior Editor Ben Adler badler@cityandstateny.com, Special Projects Editor Alice Popovici, Copy Editor Eric Holmberg, Staff Reporter Jeff Coltin jcoltin@cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Zach Williams zwilliams@cityandstateny.com, Staff Reporter Rebecca C. Lewis rlewis@cityandstateny.com, Tech & Policy Reporter Annie McDonough amcdonough@ cityandstateny.com CREATIVE Art Director Andrew Horton, Senior Graphic Designer Alex Law, Graphic Designer Aaron Aniton DIGITAL Digital Director Derek Evers devers@cityandstateny.com, Digital Content Coordinator Michael Filippi, Social Media Editor/Content Producer Amanda Luz Henning Santiago

CHRIS COLLINS To Rep. Chris Collins, nothing shows “absolute poor judgment” like using a private email server to conduct public business. That’s what he said about Hillary Clinton in 2016. But as the indicted congressman fights insider trading charges, his lawyers are citing his use of private email for public business to shield some communications from being brought into evidence. He shouldn’t be surprised if a chorus of “Lock him up!” follows him around in 2020.

ADVERTISING Vice President of Advertising Jim Katocin jkatocin@ cityandstateny.com, Account/Business Development Executive Scott Augustine saugustine@cityandstateny.com, Event Sponsorship Strategist Danielle Koza dkoza@ cityandstateny.com, Sales Associate Cydney McQuillanGrace cydney@cityandstateny.com, Junior Sales Executive Caitlin Dorman, Legal Advertising Executive Shakirah Gittens legalnotices@cityandstateny.com, Junior Sales Associate Chris Hogan EVENTS events@cityandstateny.com Sales Director Lissa Blake, Events Manager Alexis Arsenault, Director of Events Research & Development Bryan Terry, Marketing Coordinator Meg McCabe, Event Coordinator Amanda Cortez

Vol. 8 Issue 19 May 20, 2019

JERROLD NADLER

theTHORN inTRUMP’S

SIDE

THE BEST OF THE REST

THE REST OF THE WORST

COREY JOHNSON

ALAN ARMSTRONG

JON PAUL LUPO

Even if his boss, de Blasio, doesn’t win the presidential election, Lupo won an allexpenses paid trip the Iowa State Fair!

ERIC TRUMP

It’s back to the drawing board for the Williams Cos. chief after his natural gas pipeline into New York was blocked.

BARRY GRODENCHIK

After fessing up to sexual harassment, the NYC councilman lost his committee chair.

What he left out of his campaign video

SESSION COUNTDOWN CIT YANDSTATENY.COM

@CIT YANDSTATENY

Albany’s end-of-session to-do list May 20, 2019

Cover photo Celeste Sloman

JEREMY REICHBERG

The third-most important Trump kid won some Brownie points for blasting de Blasio.

With a four-year prison sentence, the de Blasio donor’s pay-to-play schemes with the NYPD ultimately didn’t pay off.

ANTHONY WEINER

JOHN STEMEN

Yes, he’s a sex offender. But last week, the former congressman won his freedom!

DE BLASIO 2020

The Brindisi aide was fired after he allegedly paid a 17-year-old for sex.

WINNERS & LOSERS is published every Friday morning in City & State’s First Read email.

Sign up for the email, cast your vote and see who won at cityandstateny.com.

CITY & STATE NEW YORK (ISSN 2474-4107) is published weekly, 48 times a year except for the four weeks containing New Year’s Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving and Christmas by City & State NY, LLC, 61 Broadway, Suite 1315, New York, NY 10006-2763. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY and at additional mailing offices.

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FRIENDS OF FARAH LOUIS; U.S. HOUSE

With Bill de Blasio jetting off to early primary states, CoJo can fill New York City’s political and policy vacuum.

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